Deuteronomy11
New International Version
1Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.
2Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;
3the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;
4what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them.
5It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place,
6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them.
7But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.
8Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
9and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.
11But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.
12It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—
14then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
15I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
17Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.
18Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
19Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,
21so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
22If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—
23then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
24Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.
25No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
26See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—
27the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today;
28the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
29When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.
30As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.
31You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there,
32be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Deuteronomy 11.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The great work God wrought for Israel. (1–7). Promises and threatenings. (8–17). Careful study of God's word requisite. (18–25). The blessings and the curse set forth. (26–32).
vv1-7
Observe the connexion of these two; Thou shalt love the Lord, and keep his charge. Love will work in obedience, and that only is acceptable obedience which flows from a principle of love, 1Jo 5:3. Moses recounts some of the great and terrible works of God which their eyes had seen. What our eyes have seen, especially in our early days, should affect us, and make us better long afterwards.
vv8-17
Moses sets before them, for the future, life and death, the blessing and the curse, according as they did or did not keep God's commandment. Sin tends to shorten the days of all men, and to shorten the days of a people's prosperity. God will bless them with an abundance of all good things, if they would love him and serve him. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil. Revolt from God to idols would certainly be their ruin. Take heed that your hearts be not deceived. All who forsake God to set their affection upon any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived, to their own destruction; and this will make it worse, that it was for want of taking heed.
vv18-25
Let all be directed by the three rules here given. 1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God. There will not be good practices in the life, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God, having constant regard to it as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work, Ps 119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Nor will any thing do more to cause prosperity, and keeping up religion in a nation, than the good education of children.
Key Words
אָהַב: to have affection for (sexually or otherwise)
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
שָׁמַר: properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת: watch, i.e. the act (custody), or (concretely) the sentry, the post; objectively preservation, or (concretely) safe; figuratively observance, i.e. (abstractly) duty or (objectively) a usage or party
חֻקָּה: {an enactment; hence, an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage)}
מִשְׁפָּט: properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or (participant's) divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty; abstractly, justice, including a participant's right or privilege (statutory or customary), or even a style
מִצְוָה: a command, whether human or divine (collectively, the Law)
יָדַע: to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.)
יוֹם: a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)
כִּי: (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below); often largely modified by other particles annexed
Cross References
Deuteronomy 11The historical account of the earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram mentioned in verse 6.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Identical commandment to bind God's words as signs and frontlets.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin
Identical commandment to teach the words to children when sitting, walking, lying down, and rising.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin
The fulfillment of Joshua setting the blessings and curses on Gerizim and Ebal.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
The historical account of God destroying Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and army in the Red Sea.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
New Testament reference to the agricultural patience required for the early and latter rain.
Supported by JFB
Prophetic promise of the early rain and the latter rain in their seasons.
Supported by JFB
Moses reiterates setting life/death and blessing/cursing before Israel for their choice.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Historical example of heaven being shut up from rain due to Israel's idolatry.
Supported by JFB
The original command during Passover to keep God's law as a sign on the hand.
Supported by Matthew Poole
God's original covenant boundary promise to Abraham, including the Euphrates river.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The explicit cataloging of blessings on Gerizim and curses on Ebal.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel description of Canaan's natural water supply contrasted with Egypt.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The plains of Moreh connected to Abraham's first altar in Canaan.
Supported by Matthew Poole