Chapter 11
God’s Mighty Deeds. 1 You shall love the Lord, your God, and observe his ordinances, his statutes, his decrees, and his commandments always. 2 Remember this day, for I am now not speaking with your children, who did not experience the discipline of the Lord, your God, his majesty, his mighty hand and outstretched arm, 3 and the signs and deeds he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to the whole land, 4 what he did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and chariots, how he caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow over them as they pursued you, for the Lord brought a lasting destruction upon them, 5 and what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived here, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, how he opened a hole in the ground right in the midst of the Israelites that swallowed them up, them and their households and their tents and all of their possessions. 7 You have seen with your own eyes all of these great deeds that the Lord has done.
8 Therefore, keep all of the commandments that I give you today so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess 9 and so that the Lord may prolong your life in the land that the Lord promised to give to your forefathers and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 The land that you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt out of which you have come. There you planted your seeds and watered the plants by hand,[a] like you would in a vegetable garden. 11 The land that you are entering to take possession of is a land of hills and valleys that obtains its water from the rain of the skies. 12 It is a land that the Lord, your God, cares for, the Lord, your God, continuously keeps his eyes on it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.
13 [b]If you carefully observe the commandments that I give you today, to love the Lord, your God, and to serve him with all your heart and soul, 14 then he will provide the rain upon the land in its proper season, the fall rains and the spring rains, so that you can harvest your grain, your wine, and your oil. 15 I will provide grass in your field for your cattle, so that you may eat until you are full.
16 Only be careful not to let yourself be enticed, turning away and serving other gods, worshiping them. 17 Then the Lord’s anger would lash out against you. He would shut up the heavens so that there would be no rain, no produce from the land. Beware lest you soon perish in the good land that the Lord is giving you.
18 Rewards of Faithfulness. Fix these words in your heart and your soul, bind them as a reminder upon your hand, and wear them as a pendant between your eyes. 19 You are to teach them to your children. You shall talk of them when you are sitting in your home, and when you are walking along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20 You are to write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates 21 so that your days and the days of your children will be multiplied in the land that the Lord promised to give them, lasting as long as the heavens cover the earth.
22 If you are careful in observing all of these commandments that I give you, loving the Lord, your God, and walking in all of his ways and holding fast to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all of these nations from before you. You will dispossess nations that are larger and stronger than you are. 24 Everywhere that your feet touch the ground shall be yours, from the desert and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, up to the western sea, this will all be your land.[c] 25 No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord, your God, as he promised you, he has put fear and dread of you upon everyone in the land, wherever you go.
26 Blessing and Curse. Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. 27 There will be a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I give you today. 28 There will be a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, and you turn from the way that I command you today and you seek after other gods whom you have previously not known. 29 When the Lord, your God, has brought you into the land that you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim a blessing on Mount Gerizim and a curse on Mount Ebal. 30 (Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the terebinth of Moreh?)[d] 31 You are to cross over the Jordan and enter in it and take possession of the land that the Lord, your God, has given you. When you have taken possession of it and are living in it, 32 then you are to observe all of the statutes and decrees that I have placed before you today.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 11:10 Watered the plants by hand: that is, by scooping out channels that allow the water to reach the seed.
- Deuteronomy 11:13 In this section, Moses shifts between the first and third person, speaking as a prophet and then for the Lord.
- Deuteronomy 11:24 Israel never extended to these borders; they serve rather as an ideal. See Ps 72:8.
- Deuteronomy 11:30 The terebinth of Moreh were at Shechem, the modern Tell Balatah; the road to the place starts at Galgala and runs westward.