Deuteronomy 11

¹ ‘You must love Yahweh your God and always keep his injunctions, his laws, his customs, his commandments.

² Mark, this day, how it was you who received the instruction, not your sons. They have not known or seen the lessons of Yahweh your God, his greatness, the might of his hand, the strength of his arm,

³ the signs and the deeds he performed in Egypt itself against Pharaoh and all his land;

⁴ what he did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots, how he poured the waters of the Sea of Reeds over them as they pursued you, leaving no trace of them to this day;

⁵ what he did for you in the wilderness before you reached this place;

⁶ what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, how, right in the midst of all Israel, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with their households, their tents and all their retinue.

⁷ It is your eyes that have seen all this great work that Yahweh has done.

⁸ ‘You must keep all the commandments I enjoin on you today, so that you may have the strength to conquer the land into which you are to cross to make it your own,

⁹ and to live long in the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers and their descendants, a land where milk and honey flow.

¹⁰ ‘For the land which you are to enter and make your own is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it by tread[*a] like a vegetable garden.

¹¹ No, the land into which you are to cross to make it your own is a land of hills and valleys watered by the rain from heaven.

¹² Yahweh your God takes care of this land, the eyes of Yahweh your God are on it always, from the year’s beginning to its end.

¹³ And it is most sure that if you faithfully obey the commandments I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God and serving him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴ “I will give your land rain in season, autumn rain and spring, so that you may harvest your corn, your wine, your oil;

¹⁵ I shall provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and have all you want”.

¹⁶ Take care your heart is not seduced, that you do not go astray, serving other gods and worshipping them,

¹⁷ or the anger of Yahweh will blaze out against you, he will shut up the heavens and there will be no rain, the land will not yield its produce and you will quickly die in the prosperous land that Yahweh is giving you.

¹⁸ ‘Let these words of mine remain in your heart and in your soul; fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a circlet.

¹⁹ Teach them to your children and say them over to them, whether at rest in your house or walking abroad, at your lying down or at your rising.

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

²¹ so that you and your children may live long in the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers he would give them for as long as there is a sky above the earth.

²² For if you faithfully keep and observe all these commandments that I enjoin on you today, loving Yahweh your God, following all his ways and clinging to him,

²³ Yahweh will dispossess all these nations for you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and more powerful than yourselves.

²⁴ Wherever the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall stretch from the wilderness and from Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, to the Western Sea.

²⁵ No man will be able to stand against you; Yahweh your God will make you feared and dreaded throughout the land that you tread, just as he promised you.

²⁶ ‘See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

²⁷ a blessing, if you obey the commandments of Yahweh our God that I enjoin on you today;

²⁸ a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Yahweh your God and leave the way I have marked out for you today, by going after other gods you have not known.

²⁹ And when Yahweh your God has brought you into the land which you are to enter and make your own, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰ These mountains, as you know, are beyond the Jordan on the westward road, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Plain, opposite Gilgal, near the Oak of Moreh.

³¹ You shall indeed cross the Jordan to enter and make the land your own that Yahweh your God is giving you. You shall possess it and you shall live in it,

³² and you must keep and observe all the laws and customs that I set before you today.