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

Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Shalt swear by his name.

When thou hast a call and just cause to swear. By his name, understand only, as , not by idols, or any creatures.

Deuteronomy 6:13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.Ver. 13. And shalt swear by his name.] An oath rightly taken, is a piece of our holy service to God, and may well be reckoned amongst our prayers and other pious performances.

(13) Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him.—Literally, Jehovah thy God thou shalt fear, and him shalt thou serve: i.e., Him only, as translated by the LXX., and cited by our Lord in His temptation. It is remarkable that all His answers to the tempter were taken not only from Deuteronomy, but from one and the same portion of Deuteronomy—Deuteronomy 5-10 inclusive—the portion which applies the principles of the Decalogue to Israel’s life. And shalt swear by his name.—Comp. Exodus 23:13. “Make no mention of the name of other gods.” The principle was not unknown to the patriarchs. Laban appealed to the “God of Nahor,” but “Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac” (Genesis 31:53). (Comp. Jeremiah 5:7 : “Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by . . . no-gods.”)

Verse 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; Lu 4:8, quotes these words thus: And him ONLY (αυτωμονω) shalt thou serve. It appears, therefore, that לבדו lebaddo was anciently in the Hebrew text, as it was and is in the SEPTUAGINT, (αυτωμονω,) from which our Lord quoted it. The COPTIC preserves the same reading; so do also the VULGATE, (illi soli,) and the ANGLO-SAXON, ([Anglo-Saxon]) Dr. Kennicott argues, that without the word only the text would not have been conclusive for the purpose for which our Lord advanced it; for as we learn from Scripture that some men worshipped false gods in conjunction with the true, the quotation here would not have been full to the point without this exclusive word. It may be proper to observe that the omitted word לבדו lebaddo, retained in the above versions, does not exist in the Hebrew printed text, nor in any MS. hitherto discovered. Shalt swear by his name.] תשבע tishshabea, from שבע shaba, he was full, satisfied, or gave that which was full or satisfactory. Hence an oath and swearing, because appealing to God, and taking him for witness in any case of promise, c., gave full and sufficient security for the performance and if done in evidence, or to the truth of any particular fact, it gave full security for the truth of that evidence. An oath, therefore, is an appeal to God, who knows all things, of the truth of the matter in question: and when a religious man takes such an oath, he gives full and reasonable satisfaction that the thing is so, as stated; for it is ever to be presumed that no man, unless in a state of the deepest degradation, would make such an appeal falsely, for this would imply an attempt to make God a party in the deception.

13. him shalt thou fear … serve … swear by his name] Intended to cover the whole sphere of religion: the spiritual temper (on the frequent enforcement of the fear of God and its meaning see on Deuteronomy 4:10); acts of worship (the Hebrew term, though technically used of these, may cover other duties as well, see Driver, i. l. and cp. on Deuteronomy 10:12); and loyalty to God in all one’s intercourse by word and deed with one’s fellows. The reason for this last, which to our ears sounds strange in so brief a summary of religious duty, is clear. All the details of life are more explicitly connected with religion by primitive man than by ourselves. He naively and constantly appeals to his god for the truth of his statements and the honesty of his business transactions. So was it in the Israel of the deuteronomists’ time, Jeremiah 5:2. Thus a man’s oaths were in his everyday life the profession of his faith. If he swore by Baal, Baal was his god. Hence the need of the command to Israel here and in Jeremiah 4:2; Jeremiah 12:16. It is the duty of carrying out one’s religion into the momentary details of life. Hence, too, the definition of Jehovah’s true worshipper as he that sweareth by Jehovah, Psalms 63:11. But hence also the need for the presence among the Ten Commandments of one not to take Jehovah’s name in vain. For the practice, however sincere in its origins, was terribly open to abuse, and was (and is) abused among Semitic nations beyond all others. Of the modern Arabs Doughty says, ‘they all day take God’s name in vain (as it was perhaps in ancient Israel), confirming every light and laughing word with cheerful billahs,’ and ‘they will confirm any word with an oath’ (Ar. Des. i. 265, 269). So Christ commanded, swear not at all.

13. Swear by his name — Not servile fear, but reverential awe, is enjoined. This was the essential basis of Hebrew worship. The oath in the name of Jehovah was equivalent to a solemn acknowledgment of belief in him.