Deuteronomy 11
A Land That Drinks the Rain of Heaven
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A Call to Remembrance
11:1Love the Lord your God, and always keep His charges, His ordinances, and His judgments.
11:2Know today that I am addressing you, not your children, who neither knew nor saw the discipline of the Lord your God, His mighty deeds, His mighty hand, and His uplifted arm,
11:3His signs and His wonders that He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land,
11:4and what He did to the Egyptians' army, their chariots and cavalry, when He made the waters of the Red Sea overwhelm them as they pursued you, and the Lord destroyed them, as to this day,
11:5and what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place,
11:6and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and all their possessions with them, in the midst of all Israel.
11:7Your own eyes have seen all the great works the Lord did for you today.
The Promise of the Land
11:8Keep all His commandments that I command you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and inherit the land for which you are crossing the Jordan to inherit it,
11:9so that you may prolong your days on the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their offspring after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
11:10For the land you are entering to inherit is unlike the land of Egypt from which you came out, where they sow seed and water it with their feet, like a vegetable garden.
11:11The land you are entering to inherit is a mountainous and level land; it drinks water from the rain of heaven,
11:12a land the Lord your God watches over. The Lord your God's eyes are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the year's end.
11:13If you diligently obey all His commandments that I command you today, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and all your soul,
11:14He will give rain to your land in season, early and late, and you will bring in your grain, wine, and oil.
11:15He will give fodder in your fields for your livestock. When you have eaten and been satisfied,
11:16take care, lest your heart grow expansive and you transgress, serve other gods, and bow down to them.
11:17Then the Lord would become angry with you and shut the heavens; there would be no rain, the land would yield no fruit, and you would quickly perish from the good land the Lord gave you.
Instruction and Retention
11:18Put these words into your heart and soul; fasten them as a sign on your hand, and let it be immovable before your eyes.
11:19Teach them to your children, to speak of them while sitting at home, walking on the road, lying down, and rising.
11:20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and of your gates,
11:21so that you and your children may have long days on the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
11:22If you diligently heed all these commandments that I command you today to do, loving the Lord our God, walking in all His ways, and clinging to Him,
11:23The Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will inherit great nations stronger than you.
11:24Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your boundaries will extend from the wilderness and Anti-Lebanon, from the great river, the Euphrates River, to the western sea.
11:25No one will stand before you. The Lord your God will put dread and fear of you over all the land you tread, as the Lord told you.
The Blessing and the Curse
11:26Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse:
11:27the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today,
11:28and the curses, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, all that I command you today, and wander from the way I commanded you, going to serve other gods you have not known.
11:29When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are crossing over to inherit, place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
11:30Look, are these not beyond the Jordan, behind the road toward the sunset, in the land of Canaan inhabited toward the west, adjoining Gilgal, near the lofty oak?
11:31For you are crossing the Jordan to enter and inherit the land the Lord your God gives you as an allotment for all time. You will inherit it and dwell in it.
11:32Take care to practice all His ordinances and these judgments I set before you today.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.