Deuteronomy 11
Open in the reader1You shall therefore love He-Who-Is your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.
2Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of He-Who-Is your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm;
3the signs and works He did in Two-Straits to Pharaoh king of Two-Straits and all his land;
4what He did to the Two-Straitsian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Reed Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;
5what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place;
6and what He did in the midst of all the children of Strives-with-God to Dathan and Father-Is-Exalted, the sons of My-God-Is-Father the child of See-a-Son, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.
7For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that He-Who-Is has done.
8You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Descender to possess,
9and so that you may live long in the land that He-Who-Is swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Two-Straits, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.
11But the land that you are crossing the Descender to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.
12It is a land for which He-Who-Is your God cares; the eyes of He-Who-Is your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.
13So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love He-Who-Is your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.
15And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,
17or the anger of He-Who-Is will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that He-Who-Is is giving you.
18Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,
21so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that He-Who-Is swore to give your fathers.
22For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love He-Who-Is your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—
23then He-Who-Is will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.
24Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to White-Mountain, and from the Rushing River to the Western Sea.
25No man will be able to stand against you; He-Who-Is your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.
26See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—
27a blessing if you obey the commandments of He-Who-Is your God that I am giving you today,
28but a curse if you disobey the commandments of He-Who-Is your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
29When He-Who-Is your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Rocky and the curse on Mount Bare.
30Are not these mountains across the Descender, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Humbled-Ones who live in the Arabah opposite The-Rolling near the Oak of Teacher?
31For you are about to cross the Descender to enter and possess the land that He-Who-Is your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it,
32be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.