Deuteronomy 6:3

observe to do See on Deuteronomy 5:1.

that ye may increase mightily A partial return to the Pl., and, with such a verb, logical and natural. The phrase is not found elsewhere. This therefore may not be a mere editorial echo. But the idea of the multiplication of the people as a Divine blessing is constant in Deut. as in other O.T. writings. In their world of war all Semitic tribes naturally prayed for large numbers. Cf. Doughty on the Arabs: -the soul of them is greedy first of their proper subsistence and then of their proper increase."

the God of thy fathers Deuteronomy 1:21; Deuteronomy 12:1; Deuteronomy 27:3; of your f., Deuteronomy 1:11; Deuteronomy 4:1, cp. Deuteronomy 29:25. So E, Exodus 3:15 and J, Exodus 3:16.

unto thee … a land, etc.] The construction is defective: insupplied by R.V. is not in the Heb. LXX adds to give thee, which affords a good connection and is probably original; as the eye of a Heb. scribe may easily have confused the first and second thee"s.

a land flowing with milk and honey found in J and E and in both the Sg. and Pl. passages of Deut. For a list of the instances, and the meaning of the phrase, see on Exodus 3:8. -Only where rich wells or running water produce sufficient pasture for the whole year, is it possible always to get fresh milk; and therefore the desert-dweller dreams of such regions in which water and in consequence milk always flows." -On long marches mothers comfort their weeping children thus: I will give you milk and honey" (Musil, Ethn. Ber.154, 158).