Old Testament · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 11

Obedience and Discipline

(Deuteronomy 4:1–14)

1And you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his charge^a, and his statutes^b, and his judgments^c, and his commandments^d, all the days.

2And you shall know this day — for not with your children who have not known and who have not seen — the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his strong hand, and his outstretched arm, 3and his signs^e, and his works which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land; 4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and to its chariot, when he made the waters of the Sea of Reeds^f to overflow over their faces as they pursued after you, and the LORD 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 to Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was at their feet, in the midst of all Israel;

7but your eyes are those that have seen all the great work of the LORD which he did.

God’s Great Blessings

(Joshua 1:1–9)

8And you shall keep all the commandment which I command^g you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you are crossing over there to possess it; 9and that you may prolong your days upon the ground^h which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land which you are going there to possess it is not like the land of Egypt from where you came out, where you would sow your seed and water it with your foot like a garden of herbs; 11but the land which you are crossing over there to possess it is a land of mountains and valleys; from the rain of the heavens it drinks water; 12a land which the LORD your God seeks after; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

13And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken to my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God and to serveⁱ him with all your heart and with all your soul^j, 14then I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your wine, and your oil. 15And I will give grass in your field for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied.

16Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them; 17and the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the ground not give its produce, and you perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD is giving to you.

Remember God’s Words

18And you shall set these my words upon your heart and upon your soul, and you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 19And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates; 21that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, upon the ground which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

22For if you diligently keep all this commandment which I command you to do it, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave to him, 23then the LORD will dispossess all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24Every place where the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border. 25No man^k shall stand before you; your dread and your fear the LORD your God shall set upon the face of all the land which you tread upon, as he has spoken to you.

A Blessing and a Curse

26See, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you hearken to the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day; 28and the curse, if you do not hearken to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not known.

29And it shall come to pass, when the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are going there to possess it, that you shall set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal. 30Are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite who dwells in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinths of Moreh?

31For you are crossing over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving to you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. 32And you shall keep to do all the statutes^l and the judgments which I set before you this day.