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Deuteronomy 5:1-6:25

Hear, O Israel

Lyrics · Deuteronomy

Hear, O Israel

Deuteronomy 5:1-6:25

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About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Deuteronomy collection. 2 recordings are available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Deuteronomy
Collection
Deuteronomy
Musical styles
Electronic
[Intro - unaccompanied] Hear, O Israel. One LORD. One love. [Verse 1] Fire on Horeb, cloud on the height, Stone held the words that ordered our life: Keep His name weighty, remember your rest, Guard every household, every vow, every breath. The elders drew back from the terrible flame; Moses stood near and carried the same. [Refrain] One when we rise, one when we lie down, One through the road and the gate of the town. Heart, soul, and might, let the whole house know: The LORD alone, wherever we go. [Verse 2] Full wells are waiting that our hands never made, Vines we never planted will offer their shade. When the cupboards are heavy and the cities are ours, Do not lose the Deliverer among all the gifts. Bind every saying close to the hand; Teach it in daylight, teach it at rest. [Bridge - parent and child] "Why do we keep these judgments? What do they mean?" We were bondmen to Pharaoh; the LORD intervened. With signs He brought us from Egypt's command, To keep us alive and to give us this land. [Refrain - shortened] One when we rise, one when we lie down, Heart, soul, and might through the gate of the town. [Outro] We were bondmen. He brought us out.

Named in this songHorebMosesEgypt

About the passage

Deuteronomy 5: Freedom receives its covenant shape

Moses brings Horeb into the present tense. The covenant spoken there is not treated as an antique agreement belonging only to people who have died; the living assembly must hear, learn, keep, and do it. The commandments begin with rescue from Egypt, then order worship, speech, Sabbath rest, family honor, life, marriage, property, testimony, and desire. Deuteronomy gives the Sabbath a social edge by insisting that servants rest as surely as masters do. After hearing God from the fire, Israel asks Moses to mediate further instruction. God approves the request, but his response exposes the deeper issue: saying the right thing in an overwhelming moment is not the same as having a heart that will keep obeying after everyone returns to ordinary life.

Study Deuteronomy 5 in depth

Deuteronomy 6: The words must live in the house

Chapter 6 moves the covenant from the mountain into the house. Love for the one LORD must involve heart, soul, and might, and the words are to be taught until they inhabit sitting, walking, lying down, rising, doorposts, and gates. Moses knows prosperity will create a new kind of test. Israel will enter cities it did not build, houses it did not fill, wells it did not dig, and vineyards it did not plant. Fullness can make the rescue from Egypt disappear from memory. Massah warns against demanding that God prove himself on Israel's terms, while a child's future question gives the household a better pattern: explain the commands by beginning with bondage, deliverance, and the purpose for which Israel was brought out and brought in.

Study Deuteronomy 6 in depth