Remember and Obey
11 “Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep His mandate and His statutes, ordinances, and commands. 2 You must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God:
His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm; 3 His signs and the works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;(A) 4 what He did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when He made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and He destroyed them(B) completely;[a] 5 what He did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.(C)
7 Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.
8 “Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, 9 and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.(D) 10 For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand[b] as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.
13 “If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship Him with all your heart and all your soul, 14 I[c] will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains,[d] and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil.(E) 15 I[e] will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied.(F) 16 Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. 17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will close the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land(G) the Lord is giving you.
18 “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol[f] on your foreheads.[g] 19 Teach them to your children,(H) talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,(I) 21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers.(J) 22 For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, walk in all His ways, and remain faithful[h] to Him— 23 the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are. 24 Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours.(K) Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River[i] to the Mediterranean Sea.(L) 25 No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as He has promised you.(M)
A Blessing and a Curse
26 “Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse:(N) 27 there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you today, 28 and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the Lord your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. 30 Aren’t these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks[j] of Moreh? 31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you possess it and settle in it, 32 be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 11:4 Lit to this day
- Deuteronomy 11:10 Lit foot
- Deuteronomy 11:14 DSS, Sam, LXX read He
- Deuteronomy 11:14 Following the Hb calendar, the early rain came in September/October and the late rain in March/April.
- Deuteronomy 11:15 DSS, Sam, LXX read He
- Deuteronomy 11:18 Or phylactery; Mt 23:5
- Deuteronomy 11:18 Lit symbol between your eyes; Ex 13:16; Dt 6:8
- Deuteronomy 11:22 Lit and hold on
- Deuteronomy 11:24 Some Hb mss, LXX, Tg, Vg read the great river, the river Euphrates
- Deuteronomy 11:30 Sam, LXX, Syr, Aq, Sym read oak; Gn 12:6
Cross references
- 11:3 : Ex 7–12
- 11:4 : Ex 14
- 11:6 : Nm 16
- 11:9 : Ex 3:17; Lv 20:24; Nm 13:27; Dt 6:3; 26:9, 15; 27:3; 31:20; Jos 5:6; Jr 11:5; Ezk 20:6
- 11:14 : Hs 2:22; Jl 2:19, 24
- 11:15 : Lv 25:19; Dt 6:11; 8:10; 31:20
- 11:17 : Dt 8:7
- 11:19 : Dt 4:9-10
- 11:18-20 : Dt 6:6-9
- 11:21 : Dt 1:35
- 11:24-25 : Jos 1:3-5
- 11:24 : Gn 15:18-20; Ex 23:31
- 11:25 : Dt 2:25
- 11:26 : Dt 30:15; Jr 21:8