Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. 2 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the 1chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm—3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: ahow He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and bwhat He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was 2in their possession, in the midst of all Israel—7 but your eyes have cseen every great 3act of the Lord which He did.

8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may dbe strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and ethat you may prolong your days in the land fwhich the Lord 4swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, g‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 hbut the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; ithe eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly 5obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then jI 6will give you the rain for your land in its season, kthe early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 lAnd I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may meat and be 7filled.’ 16 Take heed to yourselves, nlest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and oserve other gods and worship them, 17 lest pthe Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He qshut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ryou perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

18 “Therefore syou shall 8lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your tsoul, and ubind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 vYou shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 wAnd you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that xyour days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like ythe days of the heavens above the earth.

22 “For if zyou carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and ato hold fast to Him—23 then the Lord will bdrive out all these nations from before you, and you will cdispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 dEvery place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: efrom the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the 9Western Sea, shall be your territory. 25 No man shall be able to fstand 1against you; the Lord your God will put the gdread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

26 h“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 ithe blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; 28 and the jcurse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29 Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the kblessing on Mount Gerizim and the lcurse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, mbeside the terebinth trees of Moreh? 31 For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. 32 And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.