Deuteronomy 6:9

_AND THOU SHALT WRITE THEM UPON THE POSTS OF THY HOUSE, AND ON THY GATES._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

6-16 Here are means for maintaining and keeping up religion in our hearts and houses. 1. Meditation. God's words must be laid up in our hearts, that our thoughts may be daily employed about them. 2. The religious education of children. Often repeat these things to them. Be careful and exact in teaching thy children. Teach these truths to all who are any way under thy care. 3. Pious discourse. Thou shalt talk of these things with due reverence and seriousness, for the benefit not only of thy children, but of thy servants, thy friends and companions. Take all occasions to discourse with those about thee, not of matters of doubtful disputation, but of the plain truths and laws of God, and the things that belong to our peace. 4. Frequent reading of the word. God appointed them to write sentences of the law upon their walls, and in scrolls of parchment to be worn about their wrists. This see...

Verse Deuteronomy 6:9. _WRITE THEM UPON THE POSTS OF THY HOUSE, AND ON THY_ _GATES._] The _Jews_, forgetting the _spirit_ and design of this precept, used these things as superstitious people do _amulets_ and _charms_, and supposed, if they had these passages of Scripture written upon slips of pure parchment, wrapped round their foreheads, tied to their arm, or nailed to their door-posts, that they should then be delivered from every evil! And how much better are many _Christians_, who keep a Bible _in_ their house merely that _it_ may keep the devil _out_; and will have it in their rooms, or under their pillows, to ward off spirits and ghosts in the night? How ingenious is the heart of man to find out every wrong way, and to miss the right!...

By adopting and regulating customary usages (e. g. Egyptian) Moses provides at once a check on superstition and a means of keeping the Divine Law in memory. On the “frontlets,” the “phylacteries” of the New Test. Matthew 23:5, see Exodus 13:16. On Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20 is based the Jewish usage of the mezuzah. This word denotes properly a door-post, as it is rendered here and in Exodus 12:7, Exodus 12:22;...

AND THOU SHALT WRITE THEM UPON THE POSTS OF THINE HOUSE, AND ON THY GATES. To put them in mind of them when they went out and came in, that they might be careful to observe them; this the Jews take literally also, and write in a scroll of parchment this section with some passages; and, as the Targum of Jonathan here, fix them in three places, over against the bed chamber, upon the posts of the house, and on the gate at the right hand of it; and this is what they call the Mezuzah; and the account given of it is this. In a parchment prepared for the purpose, they write the words in Deuteronomy 6:4 and then roll up the parchment, and write on it "Shaddai"; and put it either into a cane (or reed), or else into a like hollow piece of wood, and so fasten it to the wall on the posts of the door at the right hand of entrance; and thus, as often as they go in and out, they make it a part of their

Deuteronomy 6:1. _Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged._ Obedience to God should arise from the fear of him, or from a holy awe of God felt in the heart, for all true religion must be heart work. It is not the bare action alone at which God looks, but at the motive at the spirit which dictates it. Hence it is always put, «That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments.» Neither are we to be content with keeping commands ourselves. It is the duty of parents to seek the good of their children to

2. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT AND WHAT IT INVOLVES CHAPTER 6 _ 1. Hear, therefore, O Israel! (Deuteronomy 6:1)_ 2. The first commandment (Deuteronomy 6:4) 3. The remembrance of these words and practical obedience (Deuteronomy 6:6) “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD.” Much has been made of this verse by orthodox Jews, who reverence it greatly. They call it the “Shema” after the first word “Hear.” It is often used by Jews and Unitarians to deny the three persons of the Godhead. The Hebrew word “echod” (one), however, excludes forever such a denial, for it means a compound unity. The Hebrew has another word which expresses exactly what Jews and Unitarians, who reject

DEUTERONOMY 6:4 TO DEUTERONOMY 11:32. General precepts resting upon the doctrine that Yahweh is the only true God. Deuteronomy 6:4. Called by Jews the _Shema_ from the first wordHear. The Shema, with other words from Scripture, is written on the parchment in the two phylacteries and in the door mezuzah, but that Deuteronomy 6:8 f. had no reference to such practices is evident from the context and from Exodus 13:9; Proverbs 1:9;...

WRITE. See note on Exodus 17:4 and App-47. POSTS. door-posts. Hebrew. _mezuza._ Used to-day, for cases containing the Phylactery....

The Essential Creed and Duty of Israel, with enforcement of them. Known from its initial word as The _Shĕma-_(_Hear_), this section (along with Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41) -has been for many ages the first bit of the Bible which Jewish children have learned to say and to read, just as it has for many ages formed the confession of faith among all members of the brotherhood of Judaism" (C. G. Montefiore, _The Bible for Home Reading_, Pt i. 127). The later law required its recital by a Jew twice daily; for particulars see Schürer, _Gesrh. des jüd. Volkes_, § 27 and Appendix (3rd Germ. ed. ii. 459 f.; E.T. Div. ii. Vol. ii. pp. 77, 84). The LXX inserts before it a longish title 1 [125], which shows how late this editorial practice of inserting titles to im