Deuteronomy
Chapter 6
The Great Commandment
These are the commandments, the norms, and the laws that the Lord, your God, has commanded me to teach you so that you may observe them in the land which will be yours.
Fear the Lord, observe his commandments all the days of your life, and his norms that I teach you today. So also for you and your children’s children, they may live long.
Listen, then, Israel. Observe these commandments and put them into practice. If you do this, you will be well and multiply in this land, flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Listen, Israel: the Lord, our God, is One Lord.
And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Engrave on your heart the commandments that I pass on to you today.
Repeat them over and over to your children; speak of them when you are at home, traveling, lying down, and rising.
Brand them on your hand as a sign and always keep them before your eyes.
Engrave them on your doorposts and city gates.
Do not forget the Lord when he has led you into the land which he promised to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for he will give you great and prosperous cities which you did not build,
houses filled with everything good which you did not provide, wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. So when you have eaten and have been satisfied,
do not forget the Lord who brought you out from Egypt where you were enslaved.
Fear the Lord, your God, serve him and call on his Name when you have to swear an oath.
Do not go after other gods; do not serve any of the gods of the nations around you,
because your God, who is in your midst, is jealous. And when he burns in anger, you shall disappear from the face of the earth.
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test, as you did in Massah.
Observe the precepts, the commandments, and the norms that the Lord has commanded you.
You shall do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord that you may be happy and come to possess the splendid land which he swore to your fathers
he would give you after destroying all your enemies before you.
And when your child asks you one day: What are these precepts, these commandments, and these norms which the Lord has commanded us?
You shall answer your child: We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord led us out of Egypt with prodigious deeds.
And we have seen the great and wonderful things, the extraordinary marvels he has done against Pharaoh and all his people.
He took us out from there to lead us into the land which he promised to our fathers.
The Lord has commanded us to practice all these precepts and to fear him, our God. Because of this, we are happy and alive today,
, and we shall be perfect in his eyes if we observe and practice these commandments as he has told us to do.
Commentaries
The Great Commandment.
As agreed in 5:27, Moses now addresses the people to share what the Lord commands. First, he highlights that following these laws and guidelines ensures a long life in the land the Lord is about to give them (1-3). Verses 4-25 focus on the great commandment of loving God, which Jesus himself describes as the most important of all the commands of Moses and the Prophets—that is, of the entire Old Testament (Mt 22:34-40; Mk 12:28-34). This love for God involves listening to his Word, demanding dedicated attention that covers all aspects and moments of life, and must be passed down as an inheritance to future generations (21).
The insistence that God is one aims to correct the view of neighboring peoples who believed that Baal had different “personalities,” as if he could be divided into local, personal, and family gods. However, the core meaning is that the Lord is the only God who has acted decisively to support the weak and enslaved, freeing them and breaking down the forces of oppression symbolized in Egypt and its Pharaoh.
The key point of this commandment is not to wear it on the wrist, hang it on doorframes, place it between the eyes, or near the heart. What truly matters is shaping your life around this love for God—following him and gratefully acknowledging his acts of liberation—by acting like him among your neighbors.