Deuteronomy6:20–25

“When your son asks… you shall say” — the Exodus catechism formula structural / thematic — confirmed

Verse 20's opening is not a free composition but a fixed catechetical pattern that recurs at the great covenant-memorials. It is held together by three words shared with its parallels: māḥār (“tomorrow / in time to come,” 52 verses), shâʼal (“ask,” 157 vv), and the interrogative mâh (“what?”). The same frame opens Exodus 13:14 (“when your son asks you tomorrow, saying, What is this?” — the Passover/firstborn answer) and Joshua 4:6 (“when your children ask tomorrow, saying, What mean these stones?” — the Jordan memorial). Cambridge confirms the textual kinship, noting that Sam. and LXX open our verse “And it shall be when,” “as in… Exodus 13:14.” We tier this honestly as structural / thematic, matching the Verifier: māḥār (52 vv) is only moderately uncommon, and the connective words (shâʼal, mâh, kîy) are common — there is no quotation-claim here, only a shared liturgical script for teaching the next generation. The rare-lexeme bar for “verbal” is not met; this is a recurring catechetical form, not one passage quoting another. The Verifier basis is below.

Deuteronomy 6:20 · Exodus 13:14 · Joshua 4:6

basis: Verifier (Deut 6:20 paired with each, returns tier 'structural / thematic — confirmed'): with Exodus 13:14 — shared lexeme(s) H4279 mâchâr (in 52 vv), H7592 shâʼal (in 157 vv), H4100 mâh (in 657 vv), H3588 kîy (in 3910 vv); with Joshua 4:6 — H4279 mâchâr (52 vv), H7592 shâʼal (157 vv), H4100 mâh (657 vv), H226 ʼôwth (77 vv). None of these is rare enough to mark a quotation; the tie is a fixed catechetical FORM (the future-child question), so the Verifier and we tier it structural, not verbal.

The threefold name of the Law: testimonies, statutes, judgments structural / thematic — confirmed

The son names the law by its full formal triad, ʻêdōt / chuqqîm / mishpāṭîm (“testimonies, statutes, judgments”), and as Ellicott notes these “appear for the first time together” at Deuteronomy 4:45, the heading of this whole discourse. The triad's anchor word is the uncommon ʻêdâh (“testimony,” 25 verses); its presence with chôq ties our verse to 4:45, to the summary charge of Deuteronomy 6:17 a few lines earlier (“you shall surely keep the commandments… and His testimonies and His statutes”), and out to the worship of Psalm 99:7 (“they kept His testimonies and the statute He gave them”). This is a shared nomenclature for the covenant law — a recurring fixed label, not one verse quoting another — so we file it, with the Verifier, as structural / thematic rather than “verbal.” The uncommon ʻêdâh makes the link a genuine recurring formula and not mere coincidence of common words, but no quotation is claimed. (The 6:17 tie is a near-context cross-reference; the Verifier returns the basis on the 6:20 / 6:17 pair below.)

Deuteronomy 6:20 · Deuteronomy 4:45 · Deuteronomy 6:17 · Psalm 99:7

basis: Verifier (Deut 6:20 paired with each, returns 'structural / thematic — confirmed'): with Deut 4:45 — H5713 ʻêdâh (in 25 vv), H2706 chôq (in 125 vv), H4941 mishpâṭ (in 395 vv); with Deut 6:17 — H5713 ʻêdâh (25 vv), H2706 chôq (125 vv), H6680 tsâvâh (474 vv); with Psalm 99:7 — H5713 ʻêdâh (25 vv), H2706 chôq (125 vv). The uncommon ʻêdâh (25 vv) marks a fixed legal NOMENCLATURE shared across these texts; because no passage quotes another, the tier is structural, not verbal.

The signs-and-wonders recital of the Exodus structural / thematic — confirmed

Verse 22's “signs and wonders, great and grievous, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household” is one occurrence of a fixed Exodus-recital that runs across the whole Old Testament with remarkable stability. Keil & Delitzsch identify it directly with the formula of Deuteronomy 4:34; it recurs in Deuteronomy 7:19 and 26:8 (the harvest creed), is rooted in the plague-narrative's own program at Exodus 7:3, and is sung back in worship at Psalm 135:9 and Nehemiah 9:10 (“signs and wonders against Pharaoh”) and recalled in prayer at Jeremiah 32:21. The fixed pair is the rare môwphêt (“wonder,” only 35 verses) with ʼôwth (“sign,” 77 vv), filled out by high-frequency words (gâdôwl “great,” Parʻōh, Mitsrayim) that complete the formula without carrying it. Because the connective words are common and only môwphêt is moderately rare, this is best filed as a structural / thematic recital — a liturgical set-piece — rather than a single quotation; the rare-lexeme bar for “verbal” is not cleanly met. The Verifier bases are below.

Deuteronomy 6:22 · Deuteronomy 4:34 · Deuteronomy 7:19 · Deuteronomy 26:8 · Exodus 7:3 · Psalm 135:9 · Nehemiah 9:10 · Jeremiah 32:21

basis: Verifier (Deut 6:22 paired with each): with Deut 4:34 — H4159 môwphêt (35 vv), H226 ʼôwth (77 vv), H1419 gâdôwl, H4714 Mitsrayim; with Deut 26:8 — H4159, H226, H1419, H4714; with Deut 7:19 — H4159, H226, H1419, H5869 ʻayin; with Exodus 7:3 / Psalm 135:9 — H4159, H226, H6547 Parʻōh, H4714; with Nehemiah 9:10 — H4159, H226, H6547, H5414 nâthan; with Jeremiah 32:21 — H4159, H226, H1419, H4714. The single moderately-rare anchor (môwphêt, 35 vv) amid common formula-words warrants a structural tier, not “verbal.”

“Righteousness shall be to us” — and Paul's law-righteousness (cross-Testament, flagged) flagged — verify source

The closing clause of v.25, “righteousness shall be to us, if we observe to do all this commandment,” is taken up by the New Testament's debate over justification. The Pulpit Commentary reads it through Romans 10:5 (“Moses describes the righteousness that is by the law: the man who does these things will live by them”) together with Romans 6:16 and Philippians 3:6; and Paul in Romans 10:5 does appear to summarize precisely this Deuteronomic principle — righteousness by doing the commandment. But this is a Greek↔Hebrew link, and the Verifier confirms it can share no Strong's lexeme by definition; the connection is conceptual, and Paul's exact source-verse for “the man who does them shall live” is more often traced to Leviticus 18:5 than to Deuteronomy 6:25. We therefore flag the tie: the idea is plainly the same, but the precise NT citation-target is debated, so it must be argued, not asserted as a quotation. (Ellicott's separate note that the LXX ṣədâqâh-as-“alms” lies behind the textual variant at Matthew 6:1 is likewise a thematic, not verbal, observation.)

Deuteronomy 6:25 · Romans 10:5 · Matthew 6:1

basis: Verifier (Deut 6:25 × Romans 10:5, and × Matthew 6:1): “no shared original-language lexeme found in the index” — expected for any Greek↔Hebrew pair, where shared Strong's numbers are impossible. The conceptual tie (righteousness by doing the commandment) is real, but Paul's nearer citation-target in Rom 10:5 is commonly assigned to Leviticus 18:5, so the precise NT source is contested. Flagged accordingly; never claimed as verbal.

The righteousness no slave could earn — fulfilled in the Mediator widely-held

The unit ends on a righteousness defined as the whole commandment kept perfectly before God's face (v.25). The Reformation expositors read this not as a ladder Israel could climb but as a measure that drives the sinner to Christ. Gill states it without hedging: to be justified by this standard “a man must keep all the commandments of God, not one excepted; and that perfectly… which is not possible for a sinful man to do; and therefore righteousness cannot be by the law. Only Christ could thus keep all the commandments of God, and his obedience is our righteousness.” The Geneva margin says the same in a line: “Because no one can fully obey the law, we must turn to Christ to be justified by faith.” Matthew Henry reads the whole pericope this way — “it is only through the Mediator we can be righteous before God” — and sees “the perfect obedience of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ” as the gospel's honoring of the law. This is a figural-Christological reading of the Old Testament's own demand: the perfect law-keeping required of Israel is rendered by the one righteous Israelite. As a cross-Testament reading it rests on the argument of the text, not on shared Strong's numbers, and is widely held in the church's interpretation.

Deuteronomy 6:25 · Romans 10:4 · Galatians 3:10

The first Exodus as type of redemption from a greater bondage ancient/widely-held

The father's answer to his son is a redemption-recital: “slaves we were… the LORD brought us out… to bring us in, to give us the land” (vv.21–23). The pattern — bondage, deliverance by a mighty hand, the slaying of the firstborn-house of the oppressor, an inheritance sworn by oath — is read across the church as the standing type of the redemption accomplished in Christ: rescue from slavery (now to sin), by a stronger hand, into a promised inheritance. Matthew Henry frames the gospel-shape already latent here — “a plan for bringing back apostate rebels and enemies, by repentance, faith, forgiveness, and renewing grace.” Gill even records the Targum of Jonathan's reading of v.21, “the Word of the Lord brought us,” and comments that “it was Christ the Son of God that was… concerned in that affair” — a witness we report as the Targum's and Gill's, not as a lexical proof. The typology of Exodus-as-redemption is ancient and pervasive; it is argued from the shared shape of the rescue, never from a Greek↔Hebrew word-link, and is offered here as figural reading, not as a claim that these verses are quoted in the New Testament.

Deuteronomy 6:21 · Deuteronomy 6:23 · Luke 1:68 · 1 Corinthians 5:7