What Does Deuteronomy 6:7 Mean?
And you shall sharpen them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
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
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.THE KEY
The Hebrew image behind “teach them diligently” is sharpening: words shape a life as they are spoken again and again through ordinary rhythms.
THE MEANING
The words that orient you become sharp through being spoken repeatedly within ordinary life. Sitting at home, walking, lying down, and rising all belong to the same shared rhythm of teaching the next generation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This dissolves the belief that meaningful teaching happens mainly in formal lessons; the verse places it throughout the rhythms of daily life.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם
veshinnantam
GROWS FROM
שׁנן
to sharpen or whet
“sharpen them” in this verse is veshinnantam. The verb here carries the image of sharpening: teaching makes the words keen through repetition. English gives the action, while the Hebrew also lets you see its texture, words returned to until they take hold.
ALSO GROWS
shinnen: To sharpen, whet, or teach with repeated care.
שִׁנֵּן
This is the verse’s verb: teaching is pictured as making the words keen through repetition.
shen: A tooth, the sharp edge used to bite or cut.
שֵׁן
This related word makes the root’s image tangible: the teaching sharpens like a tooth’s edge.
THE PATTERN
Words that shape a life are returned to across ordinary rhythms, until they become part of how life is lived.
And train your children in them, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you rise up.But his delight is in the instruction of the LORD; and over his instruction he murmurs day and night.And you fathers, do not stir your children to anger, but nourish them in the training and the admonition of the Lord.THE THREAD
And train your children in them, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you rise up.The same Hebrew verb for teaching diligently, שִׁנֵּן (shinnen, sharpen), appears here. The repeated image opens the verse further: words are sharpened through being spoken across the whole day.
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