Deuteronomy 11

Remember and Obey

11“Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep His mandate and His statutes, ordinances, and commands. ²You 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; ^h3His signs and the works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; ⁱ⁴what 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 ^jcompletely; ^k5what He did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place; ⁶and 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. ^l

⁷Your own eyes have seen ^mevery 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, ⁹and so that you may live long ⁿin the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ^o10For 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 ^pas in a vegetable garden. ¹¹But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. ¹²It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it ^qfrom 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, ¹⁴I ^rwill provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, ^stand you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil. ^u15I ^vwill provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. ^w16Be careful ^xthat you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. ^y17Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. ^zHe will close the sky, and there will be no rain; ^athe land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land ^bthe 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 ^con your foreheads. ^d19Teach them to your children, ^etalking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ^f21so 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. ^g22For 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 ^hto Him— ²³the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are. ⁱ²⁴Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. ^jYour territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River ^kto the Mediterranean Sea. ^l25No 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: ⁿ²⁷there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you today, ²⁸and 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. ²⁹When 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. ³⁰Aren’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 ^oof Moreh? ³¹For 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, ³²be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today.