Deuteronomy11
World English Bible · Public Domain
1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.
2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,
3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;
4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day;
5and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;
6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel;
7but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.
8Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess;
9and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For the land, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;
11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,
12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.
13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.
15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;
17and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.
18Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
20You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates;
21that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him—
23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border.
25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.
26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;
28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
29It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it.
32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set 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