Deuteronomy 8:6

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מִצְוֺ֖ת

mitsvâh

H4687

“commandments of”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct

Appears 184× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 26:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6680

TWOT: 1887b

commandment - commandment (of man) - the commandment (of God) - commandment (of code of wisdom)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
2 particles

Verb forms

וְשָׁ֣מַרְתָּ֔ Qal · Sequential Perfect
לָלֶ֥כֶת Qal · Infinitive Construct
וּלְיִרְאָ֥ה Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 16 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 8:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 5:33 You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he has done for you.
2 Chronicles 6:31 that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
Exodus 18:20 You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Psalms 128:1 Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, Who walks in his ways.
Luke 1:6 They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 8:6 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְשָׁ֣מַרְתָּ֔ אֶת מִצְוֺ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ לָלֶ֥כֶת בִּדְרָכָ֖יו וּלְיִרְאָ֥ה אֹתֽוֹ

You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 8:6 Septuagint · lemma form

καί φυλάσσω ὁ ἐντολή κύριος ὁ θεός σύ πορεύομαι ἐν ὁ ὁδός αὐτός καί φοβέω αὐτός

And you shall keep the commands of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתִטַר יָת פִּקוּדַיָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהָךְ לִמְהַךְ בְּאָרְחַן דְתַקְנָן קֳדָמוֹהִי וּלְמִדְחַל יָתֵהּ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתִנְטְרוּן יַת פִּקּוּדַיָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן לִמְהַךְ בְּאָרְחָן דְּתַקְנָן קֳדָמוֹי וּלְמִדְחַל יָתֵיהּ

Keep, therefore, the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in the ways that are right before Him, and to fear Him.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 8:6 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

6. This v. has been marked by Steuernagel as a later addition on the ground that it gives a strange turn to the main thought of the context. But the enforcement of the keeping of the commandments is the chief purpose of the whole discourse; and is more particularly relevant here in view of the temptations to forget them, which are described in the next verses. Besides the for of Deu_8:7 follows more naturally on Deu_8:6 than on Deu_8:5.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Deu 8:6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

Ver. 6. Therefore thou shalt keep.] As good children are the better for beating, and do gather under the wing of a frowning father.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land,.... The land of Canaan, abounding with good things after enumerated, a land flowing with milk and honey, having in it plenty of everything both for convenience and delight; which is another reason why they were under obligations to serve the Lord, to walk in his ways and keep his commandments:

a land of brooks of water; rivers and torrents, such as Jordan, Jabbok, Kishon, Kidron, Cherith, and others:

of fountains; as Siloam, Gihon, Etam, the baths of Tiberias, and others:

and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; deep waters, caverns, wells, and lakes, which had their rise from such places, of which there were many. With this agrees the account of it by our countrymen, Mr. Sandys (g), as it was in the beginning of the last century; that it was adorned with beautiful mountains and luxurious valleys, the rocks producing excellent waters, and no part empty of delight or profit.

(g) Travels, l. 3. p. 110.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

fear

(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mitsvâh (“commandment”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “commandment” (mitsvâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Deuteronomy 5:33, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וְשָׁ֣מַרְתָּ֔» is a Qal Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 16 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.