Deuteronomy 11

1 Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.

“[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 Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched 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 his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the 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 what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to 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 what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

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

6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle 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 your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.

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

8 Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess;

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 that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, 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, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;

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 that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,

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 Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the 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 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh 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 will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your 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 I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

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 Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;

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

17 and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives 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 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be 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 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise 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 You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates;

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

21 that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above 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 you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling 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 Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

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 treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be 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 will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has 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 Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

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

27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;

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

28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you 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 It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse 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 Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside 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 you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell 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 You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

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