Chapter 11
Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
thou shalt
This verse is the practical improvement of the conclusion of the foregoing chapter; while the next verse begins another view of the subject.
6:5 10:12 30:16-20 Psalms 116:1
keep
his statutes
4:1,5,40 6:1 Psalms 105:45 Luke 1:74,75
And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
And know
Moses seems here to have addressed himself particularly to the elders, who had in their youth witnessed the wonderful works which Jehovah had wrought both for them and among them; and who were bound to remember them for their own warning, and testify them to the rising generation who had not been eye-witnesses.
8:19 29:10 Proverbs 22:19 Acts 26:22
the chastisement
his greatness
his mighty
And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;
4:34 7:19 Psalms 78:12,13 105:27-45 135:9 Jeremiah 32:20,21
And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;
how he made
Exodus 14:23-31 15:4,9,10,19 Psalms 106:11 Hebrews 11:29
And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;
Psalms 77:20 78:14-72 105:39-41 106:12-48
And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
he did unto
Numbers 16:1,31-33 26:9,10 27:3 Psalms 106:17
substance, or, living substance which followed them
in their possession. Heb. at their feet.
But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
5:3 7:19 Psalms 106:2 145:4-6,12 150:2
Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
Therefore
8:10,11 10:12-15 26:16-19 28:47 Psalms 116:12-16
that ye may
31:23 Joshua 1:6,7 Psalms 138:3 Isaiah 40:31 Daniel 10:19 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 Ephesians 3:16 6:10 Philippians 4:13 Colossians 1:11
And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
prolong
4:40 5:16 6:2 Psalms 34:12-22 Proverbs 3:2,16 9:11 10:27
sware
a land
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
wateredst it with thy foot
Rain seldom falls in Egypt; the land being chiefly watered by the inundations of the Nile. In order to water the grounds where the inundations do not extend, water is collected in ponds, and directed in streamlets to the different parts of the field where irrigation is necessary. It is no unusual thing in the East to see a man, with a small mattock, making a little trench for the water to run into; and, as he opens the passage, the water following, he uses his foot to raise up the mould against the side of this little channel, to prevent the water from being shed unnecessarily, before it reaches the place of its destination. Hence he may justly be said to water the ground with his foot.
But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
8:7-9 Genesis 27:28 Psalms 65:12,13 104:10-13 Isaiah 28:1 Jeremiah 2:7 Hebrews 6:7
A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
careth for
Heb. seeketh. the eyes.
1 Kings 9:3 Ezra 5:5 Psalms 33:18 34:15 Jeremiah 24:6
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
diligently
to love
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
28:12 Leviticus 26:4 Job 5:10,11 37:11-13 Psalms 65:9-13 Jeremiah 14:22 Ezekiel 34:26 Joel 2:22,23 James 5:7
And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
And I will
1 Kings 18:5 Psalms 104:14 Jeremiah 14:5 Joel 1:18 2:22
send
Heb. give. eat and be full.
6:11 8:10 Joel 2:19 Haggai 1:6 Malachi 3:10,11
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
Take heed
4:9,23 Luke 21:8,34,36 Hebrews 2:1 3:12 4:1 12:15
your heart
13:3 29:18 Job 31:27 Isaiah 44:20 James 1:26 1 John 5:21 Revelation 12:9 Revelation 13:14 20:4
and serve
And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
the Lord's
shut up
28:23,24 1 Kings 8:35 17:1 2 Chronicles 6:26 7:13 Jeremiah 14:1-6 Amos 4:7 Haggai 1:9-11
ye perish
4:26 8:19,20 30:18 Joshua 23:13-16
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
ye lay up
6:6-9 32:46 Exodus 13:9,16 Psalms 119:11 Proverbs 3:1 6:20-23 7:2,3 Colossians 3:16 Hebrews 2:1 2 Peter 1:12 3:1,2
a sign
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
4:9,10 6:7 Psalms 34:11 78:5,6 Proverbs 2:1 4:1-27 Isaiah 38:19
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
your days
4:40 5:16 6:2 Proverbs 3:2,16 4:10 9:11
as the days
Psalms 72:5 89:28,29 Isaiah 65:20 Revelation 20:6
For if ye 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 cleave unto him;
if ye shall
to love
13 Matthew 22:37 2 Timothy 4:8 1 John 5:2,3
to cleave
10:20 30:20 Genesis 2:24 Acts 11:23 2 Corinthians 11:2,3
Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
4:38 7:1,2,22,23 9:1,5 Exodus 23:27-30 34:11
Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
Genesis 15:18-21 Exodus 23:31 Numbers 34:3-15 Joshua 1:3,4 14:9 1 Kings 4:21,24 2 Chronicles 9:26
There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
There shall
as he hath
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
30:1,15-20 Galatians 3:10,13,14
A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
28:1-14 Leviticus 26:3-13 Psalms 19:11 Isaiah 1:19 3:10 Matthew 5:3-12 25:31-46 Luke 11:28 John 13:17 14:21-23 Romans 2:7 James 1:25 Revelation 22:14
And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
28:15-68 29:19-28 Leviticus 26:14-32 Isaiah 1:20 3:11 Matthew 25:41 Romans 2:8,9 Galatians 3:10
And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
put the blessing
Gerizim
Gerizim and Ebal, mountains west of Jordan, and in the tribe of Ephraim, are opposite, or parallel to each other, extending from east to west; mount Gerizim being on the south, and mount Ebal on the north. They are separated by the beautiful valley in which Shechem or Nablous is situated, which is only about 200 paces in width. Both mountains are much alike in length, height, and figure; being about a league in length, in the form of a semicircle, and so steep, on the side of Shechem, that there is scarcely any shelving: their altitude appeared to Mr. Buckingham nearly equal, not exceeding 700 or 800 feet from the level of the valley, which is itself elevated. But though they resemble each other in these particulars, yet in another they are very dissimilar; for, says Maundrell, "though neither of the mountains has much to boast of as to its pleasantness, yet, as one passes between them, Gerizim seems to discover a somewhat more verdant, fruitful aspect then Ebal: the reason of which may be, because fronting towards the north, it is sheltered from the heat of the sun by its own shade; whereas Ebal, looking southward, and receiving the sun that comes directly upon it, must by consequence be rendered more scorched and unfruitful."
Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?
Gilgal
Genesis 12:6 Joshua 5:9 Judges 7:1
For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.
And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.
5:32,33 12:32 Psalms 119:6 Matthew 7:21-27 28:20 Luke 1:6 John 15:14 1 Thessalonians 4:1,2