The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 11

¹[So,] 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 Yahweh your God's chastisement, 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, keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you are going 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 from, where you sowed your seed and watered [it with your] foot, like a garden of vegetables; ¹¹but the land that you are going 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 to the end of the year. ¹³If you'll listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴I will give 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 plants in your fields for your livestock, and you'll eat and be full. ¹⁶Be careful, that your heart is not deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷and Yahweh's anger is 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 is giving you. ¹⁸Therefore, store these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Bind them for a sign on your hand, and they'll be for symbols between your eyes. ¹⁹Teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. ²⁰Write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates; ²¹so 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 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 will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. ²⁴Every place which the sole of your foot treads on [will be yours]: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will 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 Yahweh your God's commandments, which I command you today; ²⁸and the curse, if you won't listen to Yahweh your God's commandments, but turn away from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. ²⁹When Yahweh your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, you'll 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 live in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹For you are to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, and you will possess it and live there. ³²Observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.