< Deuteronomy 11 >

1 “[Because of all that] Yahweh your God [has done for you], you must love him and continually obey all his rules and regulations and commandments.
So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times.
2 It was you and your ancestors, not your children, whom he disciplined [by causing all of you to have/experience difficulties]. So, starting today, continue to think about how very great and very powerful he is [DOU, MTY].
And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,
3 Think about the various miracles [DOU] that he performed in Egypt. Think about what he did to the king of Egypt and to his country.
Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land;
4 Think about what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots. Think about how he caused the Red Sea to flood/cover over them while they were pursuing your ancestors, and how the army of Egypt was completely (wiped out/destroyed).
And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea come up over them when they went after you, and how the Lord put an end to them even to this day;
5 Think about what Yahweh did for your ancestors in the desert before you arrived at this place.
And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came to this place;
6 Think about what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the two sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. While all of your ancestors were watching, the earth split open, and they fell into the opening [and disappeared], along with their families and their tents, their servants, and their animals.
And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all Israel:
7 You [SYN] and your ancestors have seen all these miracles that Yahweh performed.
But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which he has done.
8 So, obey all the commandments that I am giving you today, in order that you will be strong and able to cross the river and occupy the land that you are about to enter,
So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be your heritage;
9 and in order that you will live for a long time in that land, the land that Yahweh solemnly promised your ancestors that he would give to them and to their descendants, a land that is very fertile [IDM].
And that your days may be long in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 The land that you are about to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt, where your ancestors lived. In Egypt, after they planted seeds, it was necessary for them to work hard [MTY] to water [the plants that grew].
For the land where you are going is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden:
11 But the land that you are about to enter is a land where there are many hills and valleys, where there is plenty of rain.
But the land where you are going is a land of hills and valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven:
12 Yahweh takes care of that land. He [SYN] watches over it every day, from the beginning of each year to the end of each year.
A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other.
13 Today I am commanding you to love Yahweh our God and to serve him with your entire inner beings. If you do that,
And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul,
14 each year he will send rain on your land at the (right times/times when it is needed), (in the autumn/at the end of the dry season) and (in the spring/before the next dry season starts). As a result, you will have grain and [grapes to make] wine and [olives to make olive] oil.
Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your grain and your wine and your oil.
15 And he will cause grass to grow in your fields for your livestock [to eat]. You will have all the food that you want.
And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so that you may have food in full measure.
16 “But I warn you, do not turn away from Yahweh our God and start to worship other gods,
But take care that your hearts are not turned to false ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other gods;
17 because if you do that, Yahweh will become very angry with you. He will prevent any rain from falling. As a result, the crops will not grow, and you will soon die [from hunger] in the good land that Yahweh is about to give to you.
For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
18 So, keep thinking [IDM] about these commands. Write them [on tiny scrolls] and fasten them to your arms/wrists, and write them on bands that you fasten to your foreheads [to help you to remember them].
So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow;
19 Teach them to your children again and again. Talk about them [all the time]: When you are in your houses and when you are walking outside; talk about them when you are lying down at night and when you are getting up in the morning.
Teaching them to your children, and talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up:
20 Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your houses.
Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns:
21 Do that in order that you and your children will live for a long time in the land that Yahweh promised to our ancestors that he would give to them. That land will belong to you [and your descendants] as long as there is a sky above the earth.
So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens.
22 “Faithfully continue to obey what I am commanding you to do—to love Yahweh our God, and to conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and to (be faithful to/have a close relationship with) him.
For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him:
23 If you do that, Yahweh will expel all the people-groups in that land as you advance, people-groups that are more numerous and more powerful than you are.
Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and stronger than yourselves.
24 All the ground [in that land] on which you walk will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert [in the south] to the Lebanon [Mountains in the north], and from the Euphrates River [in the east] to the [Mediterranean] Sea in the west.
Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.
25 Yahweh our God will cause all the people in that land to be afraid of you, which is what he promised, with the result that no people-group will be able to stop you.
All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said.
26 “Listen carefully: Today I am telling you [that Yahweh will either] bless [you or he will] curse you.
Today I put before you a blessing and a curse:
27 If you obey the commandments of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, he will bless you.
The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, which I give you this day:
28 If you do not obey them, and if you turn away from him to worship other gods that you have never known about before, he will curse you.
And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods which are not yours.
29 And when Yahweh brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, [some of you must stand on top of] Gerizim Mountain and proclaim what will cause Yahweh to bless you, and [the others must stand on top of] Ebal Mountain and proclaim [what will cause Yahweh to] curse you.”
And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30 (Those two mountains are [RHQ] west of the Jordan [River], west of the Jordan Valley near the huge oak tree at Moreh [village] in the land where the Canaan people-group lives. They live close to the sacred trees near Gilgal.)
Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh?
31 “You will soon cross the Jordan [River] to occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. When you enter that land and start to live there,
For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your resting-place.
32 be sure to obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.”
And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the decisions which I put before you today.

< Deuteronomy 11 >