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.

Thou shalt therefore love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, all the days.

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 ye shall know this day, that [I speak] 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;

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.

And his signs, and his acts, which he displayed in the midst of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto 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 unto the army of Egypt, unto its horses, and to its chariots; over whom he caused the water of the Red Sea to flow, as they pursued after you, and whom the Lord destroyed unto this day;

5 Think about what Yahweh did for your ancestors in the desert before you arrived at this place.

And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto 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 unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the living substance that followed them, in the midst of all Israel;

7 You [SYN] and your ancestors have seen all these miracles that Yahweh performed.

But it is your own eyes which have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he hath 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,

Ye shall therefore keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land, whither ye go over to possess it;

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 in order that ye may live many days in the land, which the Lord hath sworn unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, 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, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt, from where ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and waterest it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs;

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, whither ye go over to possess it, is a land of mountains and valleys, from the rain of heaven doth it drink water.

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 which the Lord thy God careth for; always are the eyes of the Lord thy God upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

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 shall come to pass, if ye will hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with 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.

That I will send rain for your land in its due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thy 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 thy field for thy cattle; and thou shalt eat and be satisfied,

16 “But I warn you, do not turn away from Yahweh our God and start to worship other gods,

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

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] then the Lord's wrath will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens that there be no rain, and the land will not yield her products; and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth unto 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].

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

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.

And ye shall teach them to your children, to speak of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

20 Write them on the doorposts and on the gates of your houses.

And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.

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.

In order that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give unto them, as the days of the heavens over the earth.

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 ye will diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, in order to do it, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto 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 will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall supplant nations greater and mightier 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 whereon the sole of your foot may tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the Western Sea shall be your boundary.

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.

There shall no man be able to stand up before you; the dread of you and the fear of you will the Lord your God lay upon all the land which ye may tread upon, as he hath spoken unto you.

26 “Listen carefully: Today I am telling you [that Yahweh will either] bless [you or he will] curse you.

Behold, I lay before you this day 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 ye will hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command 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 ye will not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, and ye turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye know not.

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 it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizzim, and the curse upon 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.)

Behold, they are on the other side of the Jordan, far away in the direction of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites, who dwell in the plain, opposite Gilgal, near the grove 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 ye are about to pass over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the Lord your God giveth you; and ye will possess it, and dwell therein.

32 be sure to obey all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.”

And ye shall then observe to do all the statutes and ordinances which I set before you this day.