DEUTERONOMY 11

So you shall love Yehowah your God, and all your days you shall keep his charge, his statutes, his regulations, and his commandments. 2 And you shall know this day (for I do not speak with your sons who have not known and seen it) the discipline of Yehowah your God, his greatness, his strong hand and outstretched arm, 3 and his signs and works which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land; 4 and what he did to the might of Egypt, to their horses and chariots: how he made the water of the Sea of Reeds flow over them as they pursued you; and how Yehowah has destroyed them to this day; 5 and what he did for you in the desert, until you came to 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 and tents and everything around their feet, in the midst of all Israel; 7 for your eyes have seen all the great work which Yehowah has done.

8 And you shall keep all the commandments which I give you today, in order that you may be strong, and may go in to occupy the land which you are crossing over to possess, 9 and so that you may prolong your days in the land which Yehowah swore to your fathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt out of which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot* as if it was a vegetable garden; 11 but the land to which you are crossing over to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, depending on the rain of heaven for its water-supply, 12 a land for which Yehowah your God cares; the eyes of Yehowah your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year. * A method of irrigation

13 And if you listen diligently to my commandments which I give you today, to love Yehowah your God and to serve him with all your heart and soul, 14 I will give rain to your land in its season, the autumn rains and the spring rains, so that you may gather in your corn and new wine and oil. 15 And I will provide grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied. 16 Take care what you do, or else your heart will be deceived, and you will turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them; 17 and the anger of Yehowah will flare up against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its increase, and you will perish quickly from the good land which Yehowah is giving you.

18 So you shall set these words of mine on your heart and soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 And you shall teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk in the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the door-posts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your sons, in the land which Yehowah swore to your fathers to give them, as long as heaven rests upon the earth. 22 For if you will take good care to observe all this commandment which I give you, loving Yehowah your God, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him, 23 then Yehowah will dispossess all these nations before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: your country shall be from the desert and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea. 25 No man will be able to stand up to you; Yehowah your God will lay the dread and fear of you on all the land on which you tread, as he has promised you.

26 See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you attend to the commandments of Yehowah your God which I give you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not attend to the commandments of Yehowah your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, following other gods which you have not known. 29 And when Yehowah your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are these not across the Jordan, beyond the road towards the setting of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinths of Moreh? 31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yehowah your God gives you, and you will possess it and live in it. 32 So you shall take care to observe all the statutes and regulations which I set before you today.