Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

Announcement of the commandments which follow, with a statement of the reason for communicating them, and the beneficent results of their observance. המּצוה, that which is commanded, i.e., the substance of all that Jehovah had commanded, synonymous therefore with the Thorah (Deu 4:44). The words, "the statutes and the rights," are explanatory of and in apposition to "the commandment." These commandments Moses was to teach the Israelites to keep in the land which they were preparing to possess (cf. Deu 4:1). Deu 6:2 The reason for communicating the law was to awaken the fear of God (cf. Deu 4:10; Deu 5:26), and, in fact, such fear of Jehovah as would show itself at all times in the observance of every commandment. "Thou and thy son:" this forms the subject to "thou mightest fear," and is placed at the end for the sake of emphasis. The Hiphil האריך has not the transitive meaning, "to make long," as in Deu 5:30, but the intransitive, to last long, as in Deu 5:16; Exo 20:12, etc. Deu 6:3 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 Deu 6:3 as the apodosis, but it is appended to the leading thought in Deu 6:1 by the words "Hear therefore, O Israel!" which correspond to the expression "to teach you" in Deu 6:1. אשׁר, that, in order that (as in Deu 2:25; Deu 4:10, etc.). The increase of the nation had been promised to the patriarchs from the very first (Gen 12:1; cf. Lev 26:9). - On "milk and honey," see at Exo 3:8.