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Deuteronomy 11

Moses binds Israel’s future in the land to love for YHWH, obedience to his commands, and remembrance across generations.

Moses addresses Israel before they cross the Jordan, calling on those who have seen God’s acts in Egypt and the wilderness to remember them. He links love for YHWH with keeping his commands. The land ahead depends on rain, which God promises with obedience and threatens to withhold for idolatry. Moses tells Israel to teach God’s words to their children, then sets out the blessing and curse to be proclaimed on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.

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1Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.
2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,
3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;
4and 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 the LORD has destroyed them to this day;
5and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;
6and 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;
7but your eyes have seen all of the LORD’s great work which he did.
8Therefore 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;
9and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10For 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;
11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,
12a land which the LORD your God cares for. The LORD your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.
13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14that 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.
15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;
17and the LORD’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 the LORD gives you.
18Therefore 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.
19You 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.
21that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him—
23then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
24Every 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.
25No man will be able to stand before you. The LORD 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.
26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today;
28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
29It shall happen, when the LORD 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.
30Aren’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?
31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it.
32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.
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Key verses
Deuteronomy 11:19Teaching children brings God’s commands into household conversation, carrying the memory and obligations of Israel’s covenant into another generation.
Deuteronomy 11:18God’s words must take root in Israel’s heart and soul, with visible signs keeping those words before them.
Deuteronomy 11:13Love and wholehearted service frame the obedience God requires, introducing his promise of rain and food in the land.
Where this chapter reaches

Exodus recounts the deliverance through the sea that Moses recalls here, while Leviticus shares the covenant link between obedience, rain, and harvest, along with warnings of judgment for disobedience. Joshua records the proclamation of blessing and curse at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal commanded here.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out to you about the place of God’s words in Israel’s daily household life?

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How does the land’s dependence on rain shape your reading of the blessing and curse?

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Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 11

Does Deuteronomy 11 promise prosperity to everyone who obeys God?

The promises concern Israel’s covenant life in the land God swore to their ancestors. Rain, harvests, and continued possession of that land are tied to their obedience; worship of other gods brings judgment. The chapter does not state a universal rule that every obedient person will have wealth or freedom from hardship.

What does Deuteronomy 11 mean by binding God’s words on the hand and between the eyes?

Verse 18 places these signs alongside keeping God’s words in the heart and soul. The following verses add teaching children and writing on doorposts and gates. Together, these commands make God’s instruction visible throughout Israel’s life. The chapter names the signs but gives no detailed instructions for making them.

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Deuteronomy · 34 chapters

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).