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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 6:4-16

Here is, I. A brief summary of religion, containing the first principles of faith and obedience, Deut. 6:4, 5. These two verses the Jews reckon one of the choicest portions of scripture: they write it in their phylacteries, and think themselves not only obliged to say it at least twice every day, but very happy in being so obliged, having this saying among them, Blessed are we, who every morning and evening say, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. But more blessed are we if we duly... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 6:13

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him ,.... Serve him through fear; not through slavish fear, a fear of hell and damnation; but through filial fear, a reverential affection for that God that had brought them out of a state of bondage into great and glorious liberty, out of Egypt into Canaan's land, out of a place of misery into a land of plenty; and therefore should fear the Lord and his goodness, and from such a fear of him serve him, in every part of worship, public and private,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 6:14

Ye shall not go after other gods ,.... To serve and worship them, and swear by them; and which indeed are no gods, only nominal and fictitious ones; idols which are nothing in the world, and ought to have no veneration and adoration given them; to go after them is to worship them, and this is to depart from the true God, and go a whoring after false deities: of the gods of the people which are round about you ; the gods of the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, and Egyptians;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 6:15

For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you ,.... He was near to them, in the midst of them, his tabernacle being placed between their camps; and was a God jealous of his honour and glory in matters of worship, and would resent any affront given him in that way: lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee ; there being nothing more apt to stir up his wrath than idolatry: and destroy thee from off the face of the earth ; suffer them to be carried captive out of... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:13

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God - Thou shalt respect and reverence him as thy Lawgiver and Judge; as thy Creator, Preserver, and the sole object of thy religious adoration. And serve him - Our blessed Lord, in Matthew 4:10 ; Luke 4:8 , quotes these words thus: And him Only ( αυτῳ μονῳ ) shalt thou serve. It appears, therefore, that לבדו lebaddo was anciently in the Hebrew text, as it was and is in the Septuagint, ( αυτῳ μονῳ ), from which our Lord quoted it. The Coptic... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:14

Ye shall not go after other gods - The object of religious worship among every people, whether that object be true or false, is ever considered as the pattern or exemplar to his worshippers. Christians are termed the followers of God; they take God for their pattern, and walk - act, as he does. Hence we see the meaning of the terms in this verse: Ye shall not go after - ye shall not take false gods for your patterns. The Canaanites, Greeks, Romans, etc., were a most impure people, because... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:15

A jealous God - Jehovah has betrothed you to himself as a bride is to her husband. Do not be unfaithful, else that love wherewith he has now distinguished you shall assume the form of jealousy, and so divorce and consume you. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:13

Verse 13 13.Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God. Hence it is more evident why He has just declared that there is One God, viz., that He alone may be undividedly worshipped; for unless our minds are fixed on Him alone, religion is torn, as it were, into divers parts, and this is soon followed by a labyrinth of errors. But, first, he calls for reverence, and then for the worship which may testify and demonstrate it. “Fear” contains in it the idea of subjection, when men devote themselves to God,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:14

Verse 14 14.Ye shall not go after. In this passage Moses commands the people not to turn away from the simple service of God, although examples of superstition may present themselves to their sight on every side. For this was a very destructive temptation, that none could be anywhere found who subscribed to the doctrine of the Law, although the respective nations had some religion, or at any rate the name of it existing among them. Since, therefore, these various forms of worship were so many... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:10-25

The Israelites were at the point of quitting a normal, life for a fixed and settled abode in the midst of other nations; they were exchanging a condition of comparative poverty for great and goodly cities, houses and vineyards. There was therefore before them a double danger;(1) a God-forgetting worldliness, and(2) a false tolerance of the idolatries practiced by those about to become their neighbors.The former error Moses strives to guard against in the verses before us; the latter in... read more

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