What Does Deuteronomy 6:2 Mean?
So that you might stand in awe of the LORD your God, to guard all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be lengthened.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
Awe becomes the guarding that carries the LORD’s instruction through generations, and the verse binds that continuity to the lengthening of life.
THE MEANING
Awe of the LORD takes shape as guarding his instruction through every day, carried from you to your child and grandchild. The verse sets lengthened days beside this keeping across generations, so life is pictured as a continuity larger than one person’s span.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that awe is only an inward feeling: here it takes form in how instruction is guarded and passed on.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹר
lishmor
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Guard, watch over, keep.
“guard” in this verse is lishmor. לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) carries the sense of guarding and watching over. The root’s other branches make keeping active custody: the instruction is attended to and held across the generations named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Guard, watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
A watchman guards what is entrusted to him; the verse’s keeping carries that sense of attentive care.
mishmeret: Charge, watch, guard-duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows keeping as an ongoing responsibility, fitting the verse’s phrase “all the days of thy life.”
תִּירָא
tira
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
Fear, revere, stand in awe.
“stand in awe of” in this verse is tira. תִּירָא (tira, “fear”) comes from ירא (y-r-ʾ), which can name fear or reverence; directed toward the LORD, it carries awe. The verse links that weighty regard to guarding his instruction, so awe is not detached from the shape of a life.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: Awe, reverence, fear.
יִרְאָה
This noun names the stance the verse describes: a regard for the LORD that can be carried into daily keeping.
mora: Awe, dread.
מוֹרָא
This branch preserves the root’s gravity: awe can be weighty, not merely warm admiration.
יַאֲרִכוּן
yaʾarikhun
GROWS FROM
ארך
ʾ-r-kh
Be long; lengthen.
יַאֲרִכוּן (yaʾarikhun, “may be lengthened”) describes the days themselves becoming long. The same root appears in אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם (erekh appayim, “slow to flare”), using length for duration; here that duration is applied to life.
ALSO GROWS
orekh: Length, duration.
אֹרֶךְ
This noun makes the verse’s image of days being lengthened part of the root’s broader language of duration.
erekh appayim: Slow to flare.
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
The same root describes a long fuse; here its language of length reaches the span of a life.
THE PATTERN
Awe of the LORD takes shape in guarded instruction, whose practice is joined to life’s continuity and length.
Guard therefore his statutes and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the earth, which the LORD your God gives you for the ages.A Song of degrees. Flourishing is everyone in awe of the LORD, who walks in his ways.Give weight to your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise. That it may go well with you, and you may be long in days upon the earth.THE THREAD
Come, children, and hear and respond to me. I train you in the awe of the LORD.Psalm 34:11 uses יִרְאַת יְהוָה (yirʾat YHWH, “awe of the LORD”), from the same root ירא (y-r-ʾ) as תִּירָא (tira, “awe/fear”) here. Its speaker teaches that awe to children, opening Deuteronomy’s generations as something carried forward through teaching.
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