DeuteronomyChapter 11

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¹So love the LORD your God. Always do what he tells you. Keep his laws, his rules, and his commands. ²Know this today. It was not your children who saw how the LORD your God trained and corrected you. It was you. You saw how great he is. You saw his mighty hand and his strong arm. ³You saw the signs and works he did in Egypt. He did them to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his whole land. ⁴You saw what he did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and its chariots. They were chasing you, and he made the waters of the Red Sea cover them. He destroyed them completely. They are still gone today. ⁵You saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place. ⁶And you saw what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. It happened in the middle of all the Israelites. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up. It swallowed their families, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them. ⁷Your own eyes have seen every great thing the LORD has done. ⁸So keep every command I am giving you today. Then you will be strong enough to go in and take the land. You are about to cross the Jordan to take it. ⁹Then you will also live a long time in the land. The LORD swore to give it to your fathers and to their children. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰The land you are going into is not like the land of Egypt, where you came from. In Egypt you planted your seed. Then you watered it by working with your feet, as you would water a vegetable garden. ¹¹But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take is different. It is a land of mountains and valleys. It drinks in the rain that falls from the sky. ¹²The LORD your God cares for this land. His eyes are always on it, from the start of the year to the end. ¹³So if you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the LORD your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴then I will send rain on your land at the right time. I will send the fall rains and the spring rains. Then you can gather your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil. ¹⁵I will give grass in the fields for your animals. And you will eat and be full. ¹⁶But be careful. Do not let yourselves be tricked into turning away to worship other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷If you do, the LORD's anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky so no rain falls. The land will not grow its crops. And you will soon die off from the good land the LORD is giving you. ¹⁸Put these words of mine deep in your hearts and minds. Tie them on your hands as reminders. Wear them on your foreheads. ¹⁹Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. ²¹Then you and your children will live a long time in the land. The LORD swore to give it to your fathers. You will live there as long as the sky is above the earth. ²²If you carefully keep all these commands I am giving you to follow, and if you love the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, and hold on tight to him, ²³then the LORD will drive out all these nations in front of you. You will take the land from nations bigger and stronger than you. ²⁴Every place you set your foot will be yours. Your land will reach from the wilderness to Lebanon. It will reach from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.a ²⁵No one will be able to stand against you. Wherever you go in the land, the LORD your God will make people fear you and be terrified of you. He promised you this. ²⁶Look, today I am putting in front of you a blessing and a curse. ²⁷You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today. ²⁸But you will be cursed if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God. You will be cursed if you turn away from the path I am commanding you today to follow other gods you have not known. ²⁹The LORD your God will bring you into the land you are going in to take. When he does, you must announce the blessing on Mount Gerizim. And you must announce the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰These mountains are on the other side of the Jordan, aren't they? They are west of the road, toward the sunset. They are in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah. They are across from Gilgal, near the Oak of Moreh. ³¹You are about to cross the Jordan to go in and take the land. The LORD your God is giving it to you. When you take it over and settle there, ³²be careful to follow all the laws and rules I am giving you today.