Deuteronomy 6:3

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) That ye may increase mightily . . . in the land.—The position of Israel in the land, and their continuance therein, depended entirely on their fulfilment of the purpose for which they were brought there—the observance of the Law of Jehovah, as it applied to their peculiar situation.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-3 In this and the like passages, the commandments seem to denote the moral law, the statues the ceremonial law, and the judgments the law by which the judges decided. Moses taught the people all that, and that only, which God commanded him to teach. Thus Christ's ministers are to teach his churches all he has commanded, neither more nor less, Mt 28:20. The fear of God in the heart will be the most powerful principle of obedience. It is highly desirable that not we only, but our children, and our children's children, may fear the Lord. Religion and righteousness advance and secure the prosperity of any people.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the land - Better: According as the Lord the God of thy fathers promised thee a land flowing with milk and honey.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 6

De 6:1-25. Moses Exhorts Israel to Hear God and to Keep His Commandments.

1-9. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them … whither ye go to possess it—The grand design of all the institutions prescribed to Israel was to form a religious people, whose national character should be distinguished by that fear of the Lord their God which would ensure their divine observance of His worship and their steadfast obedience to His will. The basis of their religion was an acknowledgment of the unity of God with the understanding and the love of God in the heart (De 6:4, 5). Compared with the religious creed of all their contemporaries, how sound in principle, how elevated in character, how unlimited in the extent of its moral influence on the heart and habits of the people! Indeed, it is precisely the same basis on which rests the purer and more spiritual form of it which Christianity exhibits (Mt 22:37; Mr 12:30; Lu 10:27). Moreover, to help in keeping a sense of religion in their minds, it was commanded that its great principles should be carried about with them wherever they went, as well as meet their eyes every time they entered their homes. A further provision was made for the earnest inculcation of them on the minds of the young by a system of parental training, which was designed to associate religion with all the most familiar and oft-recurring scenes of domestic life. It is probable that Moses used the phraseology in De 6:7 merely in a figurative way, to signify assiduous, earnest, and frequent instruction; and perhaps he meant the metaphorical language in De 6:8 to be taken in the same sense also. But as the Israelites interpreted it literally, many writers suppose that a reference was made to a superstitious custom borrowed from the Egyptians, who wore jewels and ornamental trinkets on the forehead and arm, inscribed with certain words and sentences, as amulets to protect them from danger. These, it has been conjectured, Moses intended to supersede by substituting sentences of the law; and so the Hebrews understood him, for they have always considered the wearing of the Tephilim, or frontlets, a permanent obligation. The form was as follows: Four pieces of parchment, inscribed, the first with Ex 13:2-10; the second with Ex 13:11-16; the third with De 6:1-8; and the fourth with De 11:18-21, were enclosed in a square case or box of tough skin, on the side of which was placed the Hebrew letter (shin), and bound round the forehead with a thong or ribbon. When designed for the arms, those four texts were written on one slip of parchment, which, as well as the ink, was carefully prepared for the purpose. With regard to the other usage supposed to be alluded to, the ancient Egyptians had the lintels and imposts of their doors and gates inscribed with sentences indicative of a favorable omen [Wilkinson]; and this is still the case, for in Egypt and other Mohammedan countries, the front doors of houses (in Cairo, for instance) are painted red, white, and green, bearing conspicuously inscribed upon them such sentences from the Koran, as "God is the Creator," "God is one, and Mohammed is his prophet." Moses designed to turn this ancient and favorite custom to a better account and ordered that, instead of the former superstitious inscriptions, there should be written the words of God, persuading and enjoining the people to hold the laws in perpetual remembrance.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it,.... Or them, the commandments given them:

that it may be well with thee; in body and estate:

and that ye may increase mightily; not only in wealth and riches, but chiefly in numbers:

as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee; a promise of increase of numbers was frequently made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; as that their seed should be as the stars of heaven, and as the dust of the earth, and the sand on the sea shore, innumerable; see Genesis 15:5 and this especially

in the land that floweth with milk and honey; a very common periphrasis of the land of Canaan, because of the plenty of good things in it; see Exodus 3:8.

Geneva Study Bible

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, {b} in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

(b) Which has an abundance of all things needed for man's life.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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: in supplied 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).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - God had promised from the first to the patriarchs that he would make of their posterity a great nation (Genesis 12:1; Genesis 17:6; Genesis 18:18). But the fulfillment of this promise was conditioned by their continuing as a people in the fear of God, and in obedience to his Law. Everything, then, depended on their hearing what Moses had been commanded to teach them, and observing to do it (cf. Leviticus 26:9, etc.). In the land, etc. This is to be connected with the clause, "that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily;" the land was to be the scene and sphere of their prosperity and increase. Some would render thus: "As the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee a laud," etc., i.e. a place in which thou mayest prosper and increase; the other, however, is the more natural construction and rendering. There is, indeed, no preposition before "the land" in the Hebrew; but nothing is more common in that language than for the accusative of a noun to be used adverbially to describe the place where anything is done. Milk and honey; emblem of fruitfulness and sweetness (Song of Solomon 4:11); proverbially descriptive of Canaan, as rich in pasturage for flocks, and abounding in flowers whence the bees could extract honey (cf. Exodus 3:8, 17). Deuteronomy 6:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The maintenance of the fear of God would bring prosperity, and the increase of the nation promised to the fathers. In form this thought is not connected with Deuteronomy 6:3 as the apodosis, but it is appended to the leading thought in Deuteronomy 6:1 by the words "Hear therefore, O Israel!" which correspond to the expression "to teach you" in Deuteronomy 6:1. אשׁר, that, in order that (as in Deuteronomy 2:25; Deuteronomy 4:10, etc.). The increase of the nation had been promised to the patriarchs from the very first (Genesis 12:1; cf. Leviticus 26:9). - On "milk and honey," see at Exodus 3:8.