Deuteronomy 11

So you must love the LORD your God. Always keep what he has put in your care: his rules, his decisions about right and wrong, and his commands.

1Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

Note"Charge," "statutes," "judgments" and "commandments" are four overlapping Hebrew legal words piled up for emphasis, not four separate categories. "Charge" is a duty someone is given to guard; "statutes" are things engraved or fixed; "judgments" are rulings of the kind a judge hands down in a particular case. Ancient Near Eastern treaties often stacked terms this way to mean "every part of this agreement."

2Know today that I am not speaking to your children. They are not the ones who knew and saw the correction the LORD your God gave, or his greatness, his strong hand, and his outstretched arm.

2And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,

Note"Chastisement" translates a Hebrew word (musar) closer to "training" or "discipline" than to "punishment": the instruction a parent gives a child, which may include correction. "Mighty hand and outstretched arm" was standard Egyptian and Hebrew language for a king's military power in action; here it is a fixed phrase that always points back to the escape from Egypt.

3They did not see the signs he did, or the things he did inside Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his whole land.

3And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;

4They did not see what he did to Egypt's army, its horses, and its chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea sweep over them as they chased you, and how the LORD wiped them out for good, right up to this day.

4And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;

NoteThe "Red Sea" renders Hebrew yam suph, literally "sea of reeds"; which body of water is meant has been debated since ancient times. Chariots were the most expensive and prestigious weapon of the age, the equivalent of an armored division, which is why their loss is singled out.

5They did not see what he did for you in the desert, until you came to this place.

5And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;

6They did not see what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and every living thing they owned, in front of all Israel.

6And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:

NoteDathan and Abiram joined a revolt against Moses' leadership during the desert years, told in Numbers 16; the ground split open and swallowed them. Reuben was Jacob's firstborn, and his descendants formed one of the twelve tribes. "The earth opened her mouth" is a Hebrew figure of speech, not a claim that the ground was alive.

7But you yourselves have seen with your own eyes every great thing the LORD did.

7But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.

8So keep every command I am giving you today. Then you will be strong enough to go in and take the land you are crossing over to take.

8Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;

9And you will live a long time in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

9And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Note"A land flowing with milk and honey" is a stock phrase for a fertile country: milk from goat and cattle herds that always have grazing, and honey, probably wild honey and thick syrup boiled from dates and figs. It describes good pasture and good orchards, not literal rivers.

10The land you are going in to take is not like the land of Egypt, where you came from. There you planted your seed and watered it with your foot, the way you water a vegetable garden.

10For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:

NoteEgypt farmed by irrigation from the Nile, moving water through channels; "watered it with your foot" refers either to foot-powered water-lifting devices or to opening and closing the small earth dams between channels by kicking them through. The point of the comparison is labor: Egyptian crops depended on human effort at the river, Canaanite crops on rain no farmer controls.

11But the land you are crossing over to take is a land of hills and valleys that drinks rain from the sky.

11But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

12It is a land the LORD your God takes care of. The eyes of the LORD your God are on it all the time, from the start of the year to the end of the year.

12A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

Note"From the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" refers to the agricultural year, which ran from the autumn rains through the following harvest, a farmer's calendar, not a bureaucratic one.

13So if you listen carefully to my commands that I am giving you today, and love the LORD your God and serve him with all your heart and all your soul,

13And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, 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 at the right time, the fall rain and the spring rain, so you can gather in your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil.

14That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

NoteIn the land's climate nearly all rain falls between autumn and spring. The "first rain" comes in October–November and softens ground baked hard by summer so it can be plowed and sown; the "latter rain" comes in March–April and swells the grain just before harvest. Miss either and the crop fails. "Corn" in the King James Version means grain of any kind, wheat and barley here, not maize. Grain, wine and oil together were the three staple crops of the region.

15And I will make grass grow in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be full.

15And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

16Be careful. Do not let your heart be fooled, so that you turn away and serve other gods and bow down to them.

16Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

17If you do, the LORD will burn with anger against you. He will shut up the sky so no rain falls and the ground grows no crops, and you will quickly die off the good land the LORD is giving you.

17And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

Note"Wrath be kindled" translates a Hebrew idiom in which the nose or face burns hot with anger. "Shut up the heaven" pictures the sky as a store-room whose door can be closed, the standard way of describing drought.

18So store up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Tie them on your hand as a sign, and wear them as bands on your forehead, between your eyes.

18Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

NoteAncient readers debated whether this was a figure of speech for keeping the words constantly in mind or a literal instruction. It came to be practiced literally: small boxes holding written scripture passages, later called tefillin or phylacteries, bound by leather straps to the arm and forehead. "Frontlets" is an old English word for an ornament worn across the brow.

19Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

19And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Note"When you sit… walk… lie down… rise up" is a Hebrew way of saying "at every point in the day" by naming its opposite ends, not a list of four specific occasions.

20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

20And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:

NoteThis instruction came to be kept by fixing a small case holding the written words, later called a mezuzah, to the doorframe. "Gates" means the gateway of a walled town, which was also where markets were held and legal cases decided, so the words were to stand at both private and public entrances.

21Then your days and your children's days will be many in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors he would give them, lasting as long as the sky is above the earth.

21That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

22If you carefully keep all these commands I am giving you to obey, loving the LORD your God, living the way he wants you to live, and holding tightly to him,

22For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;

Note"Cleave" in 1611 English meant to stick fast to something, the opposite of its other modern sense of splitting apart. The Hebrew word is the one used of a husband holding fast to his wife in Genesis 2:24.

23then the LORD will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will take over nations larger and stronger than you are.

23Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

24Every place you set your foot will be yours. Your land will reach from the desert to Lebanon, and from the river, the Euphrates River, all the way to the sea in the west.

24Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.

NoteThe boundaries name the largest extent ever claimed: "the wilderness" is the desert to the south, Lebanon the mountains to the north, the Euphrates the great river to the north-east, and "the uttermost sea", literally "the hindmost sea", the Mediterranean in the west. Hebrew orients by facing east, so "behind" means west. "Coast" in the King James Version means border or territory, not shoreline.

25No one will be able to stand up to you. The LORD your God will put fear and terror of you on every land you walk on, just as he told you.

25There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.

Note"No man shall stand before you" is military language for an enemy holding his ground in a battle line. "The fear of you and the dread of you" refers to a panic sent ahead of an army, a common motif in ancient war accounts, in which the enemy is beaten before the fighting starts.

26Look, today I am putting in front of you a blessing and a curse.

26Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

NoteAncient treaties between a ruler and a subject people typically ended with a list of blessings for keeping the agreement and curses for breaking it, recited aloud in public. This chapter and the ceremony described below follow that form.

27The blessing, if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today.

27A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:

28The curse, if you will not obey the commands of the LORD your God, but turn off the road I am commanding you to take today, and go after other gods you have not known.

28And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

29When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are going in to take, you are to announce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

29And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.

Note"Put the blessing upon" means to proclaim it aloud from that place. Gerizim and Ebal are two facing mountains with the town of Shechem in the valley between them, in the center of the land; the ceremony is described in full in Deuteronomy 27 and carried out in Joshua 8.

30These mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road that runs toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, the flat valley across from Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh.

30Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?

NoteMoses is speaking from east of the Jordan, so "on the other side" means the western bank. The Arabah is the deep rift valley the Jordan runs through. Gilgal was the first camp after crossing the river. The "oak of Moreh", Moreh means "teacher" or "one who gives an oracle", was a famous landmark tree near Shechem where Abraham had stopped generations earlier; large trees served as recognized meeting places and boundary markers.

31For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and take the land the LORD your God is giving you. You will take it and live in it.

31For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.

32So be careful to obey all the rules and decisions about right and wrong that I am setting in front of you today.

32And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.