Sunday, October 25, 2020

Proverbs 6:20-22

At the end of September, I started reading a chapter of Proverbs before I go to bed.  I noted before that there's a similarity between Proverbs 1:8-9 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9, but I found an even stronger resemblance between that same passage in Deuteronomy and Proverbs 6:20-22:  "20 My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.  21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.  22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you."

Here's Deuteronomy 6:4-9:  "4 'Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.'"

Both passages talk about "bind[ing]" these commandments to one's self, but the strongest similarity is between Deuteronomy 6:7 and Proverbs 6:22:  "when you walk... when you lie down... and when you rise/awake."