Deuteronomy 11

1Love Yahweh your God, and always keep what he requires: his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments.

2Understand today—for I am not speaking to your children, who have not known or seen it—the discipline of Yahweh your God: his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,

3his signs and the deeds he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land,

4what he did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and chariots, how he made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh destroyed them, so that they are gone to this day,

5what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place,

6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel.

7For it is your own eyes that have seen all the great work that Yahweh has done.

8So keep the whole commandment that I am giving you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are crossing over to take possession of,

9and so that you may live long in the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you used to sow your seed and water it by foot like a vegetable garden.

11But the land you are crossing over to take possession of is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven,

12a land that Yahweh your God cares for. The eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

13If you carefully obey my commandments that I am giving you today, loving Yahweh your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14then I will send rain on your land in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and you will gather in your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil.

15I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.

16Be careful, or your hearts will be deceived, and you will turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.

17Then Yahweh’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce, and you will quickly perish from the good land that Yahweh is giving you.

18So fix these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Tie them as a sign on your hand, and let them be a band on your forehead.

19Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

21so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

22For if you carefully keep this whole commandment that I am giving you to follow, loving Yahweh your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,

23then Yahweh 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 Lebanon, and from the river, the Euphrates River, to the western sea.

25No one will be able to stand against you. Yahweh your God will put the terror and dread of you on the whole land where you set foot, as he promised you.

26See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

27the blessing if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am giving you today,

28and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to follow other gods that you have not known.

29When Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of, you are to set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30Are they not beyond the Jordan, beyond the western road toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

31For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving you. When you have taken possession of it and are living in it,

32be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.