Deuteronomy 11

1 'And thou hast loved Jehovah thy God, and kept His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commands, all the days;

“[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.

2 and ye have known to-day — for it is not your sons who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Jehovah your God, His greatness, His strong hand, and His stretched-out arm,

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].

3 and His signs, and His doings, which He hath done in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land;

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.

4 and that which He hath done to the force of Egypt, to its horses, and to its chariot, when He hath caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow against their faces in their pursuing after them, and Jehovah destroyeth them, unto this day;

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).

5 and that which He hath done to you in the wilderness, till your coming in unto this place;

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

6 and that which He hath done to Dathan, and to Abiram, sons of Eliab, sons of Reuben, when the earth hath opened her mouth and swalloweth them, and their houses, and their tents, and all that liveth, which is at their feet, in the midst of all Israel:

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.

7 ' — But [it is] your eyes which are seeing all the great work of Jehovah, which He hath done;

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

8 and ye have kept all the command which I am commanding thee to-day, so that ye are strong, and have gone in, and possessed the land whither ye are passing over to possess it,

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,

9 and so that ye prolong days on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers to give to them and to their seed — a land flowing with milk and honey.

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].

10 'For the land whither thou art going in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt whence ye have come out, where thou sowest thy seed, and hast watered with thy foot, as a garden of the green herb;

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].

11 but the land whither ye are passing over to possess it, [is] a land of hills and valleys; of the rain of the heavens it drinketh water;

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.

12 a land which Jehovah thy God is searching; continually [are] the eyes of Jehovah thy God upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the latter end of the year.

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.

13 'And it hath been — if thou hearken diligently unto My commands which I am commanding you to-day, to love Jehovah your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul —

Today I am commanding you to love Yahweh our God and to serve him with your entire inner beings. If you do that,

14 that I have given the rain of your land in its season — sprinkling and gathered — and thou hast gathered thy corn, and thy new wine, and thine oil,

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.

15 and I have given herbs in thy field for thy cattle, and thou hast eaten, and been satisfied.

And he will cause grass to grow in your fields for your livestock [to eat]. You will have all the food that you want.

16 'Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be enticed, and ye have turned aside, and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,

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

17 and the anger of Jehovah hath burned against you, and He hath restrained the heavens, and there is no rain, and the ground doth not give her increase, and ye have perished hastily from off the good land which Jehovah is giving to you.

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.

18 'And ye have placed these my words on your heart, and on your soul, and have bound them for a sign on your hand, and they have been for frontlets between your eyes;

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].

19 and ye have taught them to your sons, by speaking of them in thy sitting in thy house, and in thy going in the way, and in thy lying down, and in thy rising up,

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.

20 and hast written them on the side-posts of thy house, and on thy gates,

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

21 so that your days are multiplied, and the days of your sons, on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers to give to them, as the days of the heavens on the earth.

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.

22 'For, if ye diligently keep all this command which I am commanding you — to do it, to love Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him,

“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.

23 then hath Jehovah dispossessed all these nations from before you, and ye have possessed nations, greater and mightier than you;

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.

24 every place on which the sole of your foot treadeth is yours; from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Phrat, even unto the farther sea is your border;

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.

25 no man doth station himself in your presence; your dread and your fear doth Jehovah your God put on the face of all the land on which ye tread, as He hath spoken to you.

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.

26 'See, I am setting before you to-day a blessing and a reviling:

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

27 the blessing, when ye hearken unto the commands of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you to-day;

If you obey the commandments of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, he will bless you.

28 and the reviling, if ye do not hearken unto the commands of Jehovah your God, and have turned aside out of the way which I am commanding you to-day, to go after other gods which ye have not known.

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.

29 'And it hath been, when Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land whither thou art going in to possess it, that thou hast given the blessing on mount Gerizim, and the reviling on mount Ebal;

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.”

30 are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going in of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite, who is dwelling in the plain over-against Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?

(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.)

31 for ye are passing over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving to you; and ye have possessed it, and dwelt in it,

“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,

32 and observed to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you to day.

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