World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Deuteronomy 6
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Now these are , the , and the , which your commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess; that you might your , to keep all his and his , which I command you—you, your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as , the of your fathers, has promised to you, in a and honey. Hear, Israel: is our . is one. You shall love your with all , with all your , and with all your might. These words, which I command you today, shall be on ; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by , and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your . It shall be, when your brings you into the land which he to your fathers, to , to , and to , to give you, great and goodly cities which you didn't build, and houses full of all good things which you didn't fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn't dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn't plant, and you shall eat and be full; 12then beware lest you forget , who brought you out of the land of , out of the house of bondage. You shall your ; and you shall him, and shall by his name. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, for your among you is , lest the of your be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the of the earth. You shall not your , as you him in . You shall diligently keep of your , and his testimonies, and his , which he has commanded you. You shall do that which is right and good in sight, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which to your fathers, to thrust out all your from before you, as has spoken. When your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What do the testimonies, the , and the , which our has commanded you mean?" then you shall tell your son, "We were in . brought us out of with a mighty hand; and showed great and awesome signs and wonders on , on , and on all his house, before our eyes; and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he to our fathers. commanded us to do all these , to our , for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. It shall be to us, if we observe to do all these before our , as he has commanded us."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
Christians read this chapter differently
- How does the Trinity work? · Deuteronomy 6:4
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
The world at this moment · Egypt and Sinai, 1450 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel in and then out of Egypt, at a period when Egypt was an imperial power that also controlled Canaan. The nation is formed as a people with a law before it has any land.
- Egypt
- The New Kingdom at its imperial peak, with a professional army, a chariot corps, and control reaching up through Canaan. Ramesses II reigns for sixty-six years and covers the country in monuments to himself. Egyptian power in this period is the reason Canaan is garrisoned rather than free.
- The Hittites
- The other superpower, in what is now Turkey, and Egypt's rival for the Levant. The two fight the largest chariot battle of the ancient world at Kadesh, then sign a treaty whose text survives from both sides. Hittite treaty form, with its historical prologue, stipulations, witnesses, blessings, and curses, is the shape the Sinai covenant takes, which is one of the stronger arguments for the antiquity of that material.
- The Aegean
- Mycenaean Greece: warrior kings in stone citadels at Mycenae and Pylos, keeping palace accounts in Linear B. The world of the Trojan War stories, whatever lies behind them.
- Further afield
- The Shang dynasty in China is casting extraordinary bronzes and writing questions to its ancestors on ox bones. In Mesoamerica the Olmec are beginning the first civilisation of the Americas.