(Deuteronomy 6:1 - 6:25)
"These are the commands, the laws and decrees, that Jehovah your god told me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you about to enter and occupy, and you, as well as your children and grandchildren, must revere Jehovah your god for as long as you live. If you do obey these laws and commandments, you will enjoy a long life. So therefore listen, O Israel, and take care to observe them, so that you may prosper and greatly multiply in that land flowing with milk and honey, just as Jehovah, the god of your forefathers, promised you.
"Hear, O Israel, Jehovah is our god, our only god. You must love Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul and with all your strength. And you must keep in mind the commandments I am giving you today. Drill them into the heads of your children: discuss them when you are sitting at home and when you are walking along the road, when you go to bed and when you rise. As a remembrance, wear them you as would an armband tied round your wrist or a headband wrapped round your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
"When Jehovah your god brings you into the land he promised your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you -- a vast land with large, prosperous cities you did not build, with houses filled with all sorts of fine furnishings you did not acquire, wells that you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves you did not plant -- and when you have eaten and had your fill, do not forget Jehovah who brought you out of Egypt where you were held in slavery. You must revere Jehovah your god and worship him. And when you swear an oath it must be only in his name. You must not pursue other gods, the gods of peoples around you. For Jehovah your god, who lives among you, is a jealous god: his ire will be aroused and he will wipe you off the face of the earth.
"You must not subject Jehovah your god to any test, as you did at Massah. Take care that you obey the commandments of Jehovah your god and observe the rituals and regulations he has imparted to you. Do what is right and good in the eyes of Jehovah, so that you may prosper when you enter and settle upon the fine land that he swore to give to your forefathers -- driving out all your enemies before you, as Jehovah said that he would.
"In the future your children will ask you, 'What is the meaning of these laws and decrees and statutes that Jehovah our god has commanded us to obey?' Tell them, 'We were slaves of the Pharaoh in Egypt, but Jehovah by his might brought us out of Egypt. Right before our very eyes, Jehovah worked wonders and miracles, awesome and horrific, against Egypt, the Pharaoh, and his entire court. He brought us out of there that he might bring us here, the land he swore to give to our forefathers. Jehovah commanded us to obey his laws and to revere him as our god so that he would preserve us and make us prosper, as we do today. If we are careful to obey these laws in his sight, as Jehovah our god has commanded us to do, we will be accounted as righteous.'"
Notes
1. Moses, with trying redundancy, impresses upon his people the necessity of obeying all the laws and commandments given to the Israelites by Jehovah. The obligation to obey them is based upon gratitude for Jehovah's freeing them from bondage in Egypt. The laws, it must be said, are not intended for any other people, only the Israelites. If they obey them and if they indoctrinate their children to obey them, they will be rewarded with prosperity and long life; if they do not, they will be punished, even destroyed. There is no promise of rewards in the afterlife, in fact, no mention is made at all of an afterlife. There is no assurance that the laws will make one a better person in a moral sense. The benefits of obedience are purely material, but obedience does permit one to be considered righteous.
2. The Israelites are commanded to do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah, that is, they must surrender their own ethical judgments and free moral will to Jehovah. He tells them how they must live. Instead of being slaves to the Pharaoh, they are now slaves to Jehovah, who, in his mind, has purchased them with the miracles that made their freedom possible.
3. Interesting that Moses asks Jehovah’s followers to write his commandments on their door posts and gates. It is unlikely that any of those listening to him would have known how to write, even the Egyptian hieroglyphics which, save for Mesopotamian cuneiform, were the only existent forms of writing.
4. Jehovah emphasizes that he not helping the Israelites to create themselves the material elements of a country -- cities, houses, orchards, wells, etc. An alternative to working, building and making things, is simply to steal what others have built and made. This is what Jehovah advocates. He promises to give the Israelites the fruits of other people’s labor. He robs his people of the satisfaction of achievement and pride in their own accomplishments, replacing it with an obligation of gratitude to a gift-giver. Gratitude is exactly what Jehovah wishes to nourish, for this is the only way he can maintain the faithful worship of his followers.
5. Massah is apparently one the stations, the stops the Israelites made during the Exodus. It is not mentioned, though, in the list of stations named in Numbers. Massah (which means “testing”) seems be the same place as Meribah (which means “quarreling”), even though in other references they are mentioned together as two, obviously distinct locales. It was at Meribah that the people rebelled against Moses because they had no water. Moses, at Jehovah’s behest, produced water by striking a rock with the staff of Aaron. It was here that Moses somehow angered Jehovah so much that he would be denied entry into the Promised Land. The accounts of this incidents are muddled. Deuteronomy consistently takes Moses’ side and blames others for his shortcomings. In other words, it was the conduct of the Israelites and not Moses himself that precipitated the displeasure of Jehovah at Massah (or Meribah.)
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