Deuteronomy 6:24

Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes This phrase is natural to the time and standpoint assumed throughout Deuteronomy 6:20, viz. those of the later generation before which the statutes will already have been published. Notice, too, how naturally Jehovahis used instead of the deuteronomic Jehovah thy God; for here we have, not Moses addressing Israel, but Moses quoting what Israel are to say to their children; so, too, Jehovah our God(thrice) is to be explained. Thus two of Steuernagel's reasons for counting the passage as secondary (that Sg. does not elsewhere in the introductory discourses take the laws as already published and that Jehovah our God does not elsewhere occur in the Sg.) are disposed of. He has missed the standpoint of the speakers whom Moses quotes. Steuernagel's third reason for the secondariness of the passage that it interrupts by its emphasis on obedience the Sg. course of thought, which before and after it warns against the worship of other gods is insufficient.

might preserve us alive Sustain the national existence which He had begun by the redemption from Egypt (Deuteronomy 6:21). The Law is given to preserve the life born in that deed of grace. See above.

alive, as at this day -It deserves attention that this points to the composition [of the passage] as pre-exilic, for the Exile was felt as death" (Bertholet). This would be a good argument if the words were part of Moses" direct address to Israel, but they are spoken from the standpoint of a generation settled in Palestine.