Deuteronomychapter 11
32 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
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:
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses gave this address on the plains of Moab in the fortieth year after the Exodus, and the book keeps it in his own voice. His hearers were men who had seen Egypt for themselves and were about to farm hill country that depends on the sky. It is the last of the general charges before the particular laws begin. It argues from memory and from the land, from what the listeners had watched and from the kind of country they were entering. Listen for how often he appeals to what their eyes saw, and for the difference between a river and the rain.
Context
- Who
- Men who had seen Egypt, the sea and the ground that opened, and who were about to farm rain-fed land
- What
- The last general charge before the statutes, setting a land that drinks rain and a choice between blessing and curse before Israel.
- Where
- The plains of Moab east of the Jordan, looking across to the hill country and to the two mountains at Shechem.
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date this site keeps.
- Why
- To press the men who saw the Exodus to love and obey the LORD before the particular laws are given, since the rain of the land would answer to it.
Historical context
The speech is Moses in the first person, and verse 2 draws a line through the room. He says he is speaking to the men who saw the discipline of the LORD and not to their children, who did not.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The setting of the speech is the plain east of the Jordan in the fortieth year, at about 1406 BC on the frame this site keeps.
The land described lies west across the river. Egypt fed itself from a river a farmer could work by hand, and the hill country of Canaan waits on the autumn and spring rains.
The occasion is the end of the general charge that began at chapter 6. The particular statutes start at 12:1, and this chapter is the last push before them.
A first hearer knew what watering by foot meant in Egypt, whether it was a water engine worked by the feet or a man opening and closing his irrigation channels in the mud. The site's published exposition carries both readings.
He knew what a failed autumn rain did to a household, so the threat at verse 17 of a shut heaven was a threat against the year's bread.
He knew the two mountains named at verse 29 by reputation. Gerizim and Ebal stand on either side of the valley at Shechem, and the oak of Moreh named beside them is where Abram built his first altar in the land at Genesis 12:6-7.
Significance
The appeal worked on memory. The men listening had watched Egypt, the sea and the ground that swallowed Dathan and Abiram, and the charge rested on what their own eyes had seen.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
The move from a river to the rain changed what obedience meant in daily life. A harvest that hung on the sky put the year under the God who gives the rain.
The blessing and the curse set at verse 26 were not left as an idea. They were given two mountains and a ceremony, and Joshua 8:30-35 records the ceremony carried out.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Verses 13 to 21 are the second paragraph of the Shema, said with the first at the morning and evening recital. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:18:1 reads the command to place the words on the heart as a charge to keep the marks of the commandments even in exile. He names them: lay Tephillin, attach Mezuzoth to your doorposts, so that they will not be novelties on the return. He reads Jeremiah 31:21 alongside it and cites Sifrei Devarim 43:34. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:19:1 draws the rule for a child's first words from the command to teach them. A father is to speak with his son in the Holy Tongue from the moment the child can speak, and to teach him the Torah, beginning with Deuteronomy 33:4. Rashi cites Sukkah 42a and gives the rabbis' own conclusion about a father who fails to do it. The corpus anchors Berakhot 13b:8 at verse 18 and Berakhot 16a:4 at verse 20.
How it is read
The classical commentary reads this chapter as a comparison between two lands and the life each demands. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:10:1 argues at length that the promised land is better than Egypt. He works from the note at Numbers 13:22 that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan, and reasons that a builder raises the better city first. Zoan was the seat of Egyptian royalty and Hebron the poorest city of Canaan, and the poorest still surpassed the best, which he takes from Sifrei Devarim 37:1-3. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:11:1 holds that hill country yields more than plain, since a hill sown on four slopes and a summit carries five times the seed of the flat measure. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:12:1 asks whether God cares for this land alone, and answers that through his care for it he cares for all other lands with it, from Sifrei Devarim 40:1. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:14:1 gives the tradition's own summary of the covenant bargain at the rain of verse 14. Israel will have done what devolved upon it, and God will do what devolves upon him. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:16:1 reads the warning about the heart as a warning about plenty, holding that rebellion comes out of satiety. Ramban on Deuteronomy 11:24:1 reads the promise about the sole of the foot as two assurances. From it he traces the rabbis' division over the standing of Syria, which David took without the Urim and Thummim and without the Sanhedrin. The Rashi entries are from corpus entries marked kept, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, public domain. Ramban is from the Chavel translation published by Shilo, CC-BY, and Sforno on Deuteronomy 11:9:1 is from Eliyahu Munk's HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY. Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 11:1:1, 11:3:1, 11:4:1, 11:5:1 and 11:8:1 is a linked entry, cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis differ over how the earth swallowed the rebels of Numbers 16. Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:6:1 gives the exchange. Rabbi Judah held that the ground split wherever any one of them fled. Rabbi Nehemiah objected that the text says the earth opened its mouth in the singular. Rabbi Judah then pressed the words about the midst of all Israel, and the answer given is that the ground sloped like a funnel, so that each man rolled down to the single fissure. Rashi refers it to Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 752, and this site reports it as what the rabbis taught. They teach that the repeated verb for observing is a warning that study may be forgotten, which Rashi gives on Deuteronomy 11:22:1 from Sifrei Devarim 48:2. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 4:9:1 at verse 1, Bamidbar Rabbah 18:13 at verse 6 and Bava Batra 19a:18 at verse 11. Others are Avot DeRabbi Natan 4:4 at verses 13 and 14, Berakhot 35b:4 at verse 14, Bamidbar Rabbah 17:1 at verse 19 and Devarim Rabbah 4:1 at verse 26.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:2:1, 11:6:1, 11:10:1, 11:11:1, 11:12:1, 11:14:1, 11:16:1, 11:18:1, 11:19:1, 11:22:1 and 11:25:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Ramban, Ramban on Deuteronomy 11:24:1, Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, CC-BY, 1971 to 1976; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 11:9:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 11:1:1, 11:3:1, 11:4:1, 11:5:1 and 11:8:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Midrash and Talmud, Berakhot 13b:8, 16a:4 and 35b:4, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 4:9:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 18:13 and 17:1, Bava Batra 19a:18, Avot DeRabbi Natan 4:4 and Devarim Rabbah 4:1, cited by ref alone; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/11.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Your own eyes saw what he did
Deuteronomy 11:1-3
Love is commanded three times in this chapter, at verses 1, 13 and 22, and 6:5 is where the book first asks for it. Verse 2 divides the audience, for Moses speaks to the men who saw "the discipline of the LORD your God", not their children. The word rendered discipline carries teaching with correction, so what those men watched in Egypt was their schooling.
Deuteronomy 11:1
“Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge--The reason for the frequent repetition of the same or similar counsels is to be traced to the infantine character and state of the church, which required line upon line and precept upon precept.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 11:1
“In sum, he exhorts them that, being invited by God's love, they should love him in return. Meanwhile, it is well to observe that free affection is the foundation and beginning of duly obeying the Law, for what is drawn forth by constraint, or servile fear, cannot please God.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
The discipline of the LORD is spelled out in three phrases, from His greatness to His outstretched arm. Barnes reads the discipline as the whole run of mighty acts, punishment and mercy together, by which God led Israel from Egypt to the border. Hand and arm return together at 26:8.
Verse 3 carries the list of what that generation saw back to Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his land. The plagues of Exodus 7 to 12 struck king and land. At 6:22 the father tells his son these signs were done before their eyes.
Deuteronomy 11:3
“And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt,.... The miraculous works done there, the ten plagues inflicted on the Egyptians for refusing to let Israel go: unto Pharaoh king, of Egypt, and unto all his land; for those plagues not only affected him and his court, and his metropolis, but all parts of the land, the inhabitants of it everywhere.”
Deuteronomy 11:4-5
The Red Sea takes one clause, and its weight falls on the last words, "how He destroyed them completely, even to this day", which keeps a forty-year-old act in force as Moses speaks. Exodus 14:28 is the account it points back to. Verse 5 covers the whole wilderness period in one line and names nothing in it, because the men listening supply the detail themselves.
Deuteronomy 11:4
“Thus did he give Egypt for their ransom, Isa. xliii. Rather shall that famous kingdom be destroyed than that Israel shall not be delivered. Upon Dathan and Abiram that embroiled them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Gill reads what the LORD did in the wilderness until they reached this place as discipline for their murmuring and idolatry. He names Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah in Numbers 11 and the fiery serpents of Numbers 21. Their own eyes had seen every one.
Deuteronomy 11:5
“And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto this place. Meaning not so much the good things he did for them in divers places, as the chastisements and corrections he had exercised them with for their murmurings, rebellions, idolatry, and uncleanness, as at Taberah, Kibrothhattaavah, on the coast of Edom, and plains of Moab; by fire, by sword, by plagues, and fiery serpents; the instances both before and after being of this sort.”
Deuteronomy 11:6-7
Numbers 16 is the account, and there Korah leads the revolt with Dathan and Abiram. This verse names the two Reubenites and their households and leaves Korah out, and Numbers 26:11 records that "the line of Korah did not die out". Both books stand as written, and verse 7 grounds the appeal in what "your own eyes" have seen.
Verse 7 grounds the charge that opens verse 8. Moses warned these hearers at 4:9 against forgetting what their eyes had seen. At 29:4 he says the LORD had yet to give them a mind to understand, eyes to see and ears to hear.
Deuteronomy 11:7
“But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did; Even all before related, with many others; and therefore the instruction they should learn from thence should be as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 11:7
The authority of the one commanding ought to move us to observe the commandments of God, because by His great power He creates us. "Your eyes have seen all the great works of God, which He did, that you might keep His commandments."
Bonaventure · written before 1257 · Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1patristic
A land that drinks the rain of heaven
Deuteronomy 11:8-9
The recital turns into a charge, and the first thing promised is strength to take the land. The phrase "milk and honey" enters Scripture at Exodus 3:8, at the bush, and runs to the end of the Torah as the standing description of the place. Long days in the land, promised for honouring parents at Exodus 20:12, are here promised for the whole law.
Deuteronomy 11:8
“Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments - Because God can execute such terrible judgments, and because he has given such proofs of his power and justice; and because, in similar provocations, he may be expected to act in a similar way; therefore keep his charge, that he may keep you unto everlasting life.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The oath names the descendants along with the fathers, as Genesis 15:18 and 26:3 give the land to Abraham and to Isaac with their offspring. The fathers lived in the land as strangers, and Hebrews 11:9 says so of Abraham. The generation of verse 9 would hold what was sworn.
Deuteronomy 11:10-12
Egypt was watered by labour from the Nile, and the new land "drinks in the rain from heaven", which puts the harvest under the sky. Adam Clarke takes "irrigated on foot" of a water engine worked by the feet, and others of channels opened with the foot. Verse 12 says "the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it", which gives the land a standing of its own.
Deuteronomy 11:10
“Wateredst it with thy foot - Rain scarcely ever falls in Egypt, and God supplies the lack of it 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 different parts of the field where irrigation is necessary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 11:10
“And when it did overflow sufficiently, and left its mud upon the earth, yet that mud was in a little time hardened, and needed another watering, and much digging and labour both of the hand and feet, especially in places more remote from that river; which inconvenience Canaan was free from.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jerome describes the land as hills and valleys standing high above the sea, watered from above where Egypt was watered from below. He grants that it lacks the attractions of the world and finds its spiritual attractions all the greater for that lack. Its harvest waited on heaven.
Deuteronomy 11:11
“All this Abraham undergoes that he may dwell in a land of promise watered from above, and not like Egypt, from below, no producer of herbs for the weak and ailing but a land that looks for the early and the latter rain from heaven. It is a land of hills and valleys and stands high above the sea. The attractions of the world it entirely lacks, but its spiritual attractions are for this all the greater.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 46.2patristic
the eyes of the Lord: The care of verse 12 is the same attention that shuts the heavens at verse 17 when Israel turns to other gods. Clarke at verse 14 places the early rain about November and the latter rain about April, so the whole farming year lay under that watch. Rain and drought come from one hand.
Deuteronomy 11:12
“THE Israelites had sojourned for a while in Egypt, a land which only produces food for its inhabitants by the laborious process of irrigating its fields. They had mingled with the sons of Ham as they watched with anxious eyes the swelling of the river Nile. They had shared in the incessant labors by which the waters were preserved in reservoirs, and afterwards eked out by slow degrees to nourish the various crops.”
Deuteronomy 11:13-15
Verse 13 repeats the demand of the Shema, "to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart", and hangs the rain on it. Verse 14 is where "the autumn and spring rains" enter Scripture, the one softening the ground for sowing and the other filling the grain. The pair recurs at Jeremiah 5:24, Hosea 6:3, Joel 2:23, Zechariah 10:1 and James 5:7.
Deuteronomy 11:13
“And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day,.... In the name, and by the authority of the Lord, the only lawgiver: to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul; see Deu 10:12. Jarchi interprets this of prayer; but it is not to be restrained to that only, but includes the whole service of God, in all the parts of it, performed from a principle of love to him, and in sincerity and truth.”
Grain, new wine and oil are the three staples of the land, and 7:13 promises the same three. Hosea 2:8 charges Israel with failing to acknowledge that the LORD gave them, while the silver He gave was used for Baal. That is the turn verse 16 warns against.
Deuteronomy 11:14
“The rain - in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain - By the first or former rain we are to understand that which fell in Judea about November, when they sowed their seed, and this served to moisten and prepare the ground for the vegetation of the seed. The latter rain fell about April, when the corn was well grown up, and served to fill the ears, and render them plump and perfect. Rain rarely fell in Judea at any other seasons than these.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Eat and be satisfied is the phrase that sets up a warning each time the book uses it. At 6:11 to 12 and 8:10 to 14 a full table is the moment Israel is most likely to forget the LORD, and verse 16 follows here at once. Plenty comes with a caution.
Deuteronomy 11:15
“That blessing was promised to the Israelites as a temporal reward for their fidelity to the national covenant [De 11:13]. It was threatened to be withdrawn on their disobedience or apostasy; and most signally is the execution of that threatening seen in the present sterility of Palestine.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 11:15
“Godliness hath here the promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil will.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 11:16-17
The sanction fits the promise, since the God who gives the rain "will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain". Solomon prays this clause back at 1 Kings 8:35, and Elijah enacts it at 1 Kings 17:1. James 5:17 reads that drought as an answer to prayer lasting three years and six months, and Revelation 11:6 gives the two witnesses power to shut the sky.
Deuteronomy 11:16
“All that forsake God to set their affection upon, or pay their devotion to, any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived to their own destruction; and this will aggravate it that it was purely for want of taking heed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Wesley reads the shut heavens through the picture of a storehouse of rain whose doors God opens and closes, and he points to the storehouses of Job 38:22. The verse then goes past drought to the loss of the land, to perish from the good land. The same threat stands at 4:26.
Deuteronomy 11:17
“Shut up the heaven - Which is compared sometimes to a great store-house wherein God lays up his treasures of rain, Job xxxviii, 22, the doors whereof God is said to open when he gives rain, and to shut when he witholds it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Bind them on your hand; every place you tread
Deuteronomy 11:18-21
This repeats 6:6-9 within the same speech: the words in the heart, on the hand and forehead, taught to the children and written on doorposts and gates. Verse 18 is plural where 6:6 was singular, and verse 19 returns to the singular for the house. The promise reaches the children and runs "as long as the heavens are above the earth", a figure Psalm 89:29 uses of David's throne.
Deuteronomy 11:18
“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul,.... Treasure up the laws of God delivered to them in their minds, retain them in their memories, and cherish a cordial affection for them; which would be an antidote against apostasy, idolatry, and other sins, Psa 119:11. and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes; of this and the two following verses; see Gill on Deu 6:7; see Gill on Deu 6:8; see Gill on Deu 6:9.”
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 11:18
“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words - See Deu 6:4-8 (note), and Exo 13:9 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 11:18
“We cannot expect good practices in the conversation, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles, in the heart. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God. "Bind these words for a sign upon your hand, which is always in view ( Isa. xlix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 11:18
“Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God: Bind them for a sign upon your hand, which is always in view, and as frontlets between your eyes, which you cannot avoid the sight of. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God, especially with our children, who must be taught this, as far more needful than the rules of decency, or the calling they are to live by.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Verse 2 set apart the children who had seen none of these works, and verse 19 gives the remedy. The generation that saw them must speak of them at home and on the road until the children know them. Psalm 78:5 to 7 carries this charge to every later generation.
Doorposts belong to the house and gates to the town, where the elders sat in judgment at 21:19 and 22:15. The words of verse 18 were to be read at both. Barnes gives the purpose from verse 21: keep the covenant faithfully, and the days of the children in the land are multiplied.
Barnes calls the promise of the land perpetual and conditional at once. The LORD swore to give the land to the fathers, and their children's days in it would be multiplied as long as they kept His commandments. 2 Kings 17:23 records the northern tribes carried off to Assyria.
Deuteronomy 11:21
“The sense is: “Keep the covenant faithfully, and so shall your own and your children’s days be multiplied as long as the heaven covers the earth.” The promise of Canaan to Israel was thus a perpetual promise, but also a conditional one.”
Deuteronomy 11:22-23
Five verbs are stacked in one verse, to keep, to do, to love, to walk and to cleave, and the last of them is the word Genesis 2:24 uses of a man joined to his wife. The nations to be driven out are called greater and mightier than Israel, which is the same assessment the spies brought back at Numbers 13:31 and used as a reason to stay out. The difference the verse makes is over who does the driving.
Deuteronomy 11:22
“For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them,.... Observe and take notice of them, even all of them, and so as not merely to have a theory or notional knowledge of them, but to put them in practice: to love the Lord your God; and show it by obeying his commands, and which is the end of the commandment, and the principle from which all obedience should flow: to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; see Deu 10:12.”
The LORD will drive out these nations on the condition of verse 22, if Israel keeps these commandments. Judges 2:20 to 23 records the LORD leaving nations in the land after Joshua died, when Israel had broken His covenant. Those nations were left to test Israel.
Deuteronomy 11:23
“Then will the Lord drive out all those nations from before you,.... By little and little, even all the seven nations which then inhabited the land of Canaan; and this he would do to make room for them, that they might inherit the land; see Deu 7:1. and ye shall possess greater nations, and mightier than yourselves; countries whose inhabitants were more in number, and greater in strength, than they; and therefore the conquest of them was not to be ascribed to themselves, but to the Lord; this is often observed; see Deu 7:1.”
Deuteronomy 11:24-25
Joshua 1:3-4 gives this promise to Joshua almost word for word, and Genesis 15:18 gave Abram the same span. It runs wider than Israel ever held: Joshua 13:1 says much land remained, and 1 Kings 4:21 has Solomon ruling from the river to Egypt's border, the nearest it came. The "fear and dread" of verse 25 were promised at Exodus 23:27, and Rahab reports them at Joshua 2:9.
Deuteronomy 11:24
“From the river - Euphrates, which was on the east, to the uttermost sea - the Mediterranean, which lay westward of the promised land. This promise, notwithstanding the many provocations of the Israelites, was fulfilled in the time of Solomon, for “he reigned over all the kings from the river (Euphrates) even unto the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.” See 2Ch 9:26, and the note, Num 34:12 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The first clause is said again to Joshua at Joshua 1:5, with the promise that the LORD would be with him as He was with Moses. The fear and dread were first laid on the nations at 2:25, as Israel began to take the land of Sihon. Verse 25 extends them to all the land.
Deuteronomy 11:25
“Nothing contributes more to the making of a nation considerable abroad, valuable to its friends and formidable to its enemies, than religion reigning in it; for who can be against those that have God for them? And he is certainly for those that are sincerely for him, Prov. xiv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A blessing and a curse on two mountains
Deuteronomy 11:26-28
The book's close is laid out here: a choice between a blessing and a curse. Chapters 27 and 28 stage them at length, fourteen verses of blessing against fifty-four of curse, and 30:19 puts the choice last as life and death. The words "today" and "this day" fall eight times in this chapter and seventy in the book, so the covenant binds the generation that hears it.
Deuteronomy 11:26
“Behold, I set before you - a blessing and a curse - If God had not put it in the power of this people either to obey or disobey; if they had not had a free will, over which they had complete authority, to use it either in the way of willing or nilling; could God, with any propriety, have given such precepts as these, sanctioned with such promises and threatenings? If they were not free agents, they could not be punished for disobedience, nor could they, in any sense of the word, have been rewardable for obedience.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke argues from the blessing and the curse that the people had a real power to obey or to disobey. He reasons that commandments sanctioned by blessing and curse would make no sense for people who were not free agents. Obedience is the path to the blessing.
Deuteronomy 11:27
“A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God,.... That is, a blessing should come upon them, even all temporal blessings they stood in need of; they should be blessed in body and estate, in their families, and in their flocks, in town and country; see Deu 28:1, which I command you this day; afresh repeated to them, and enjoined them the observation of it in the name of the Lord.”
Turn aside from the path is the charge Moses laid against Israel at the golden calf, at 9:12 and 9:16, where they turned quickly from the way the LORD had commanded. Verse 28 makes that same act the ground of the curse. Clarke treats the turning as a free choice.
Deuteronomy 11:28
“Say you to the righteous (for God has said it, and all the world cannot unsay it) that it shall be well with them: but woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 11:29-30
Gerizim and Ebal flank the valley at Shechem, and "the Oak of Moreh" is where Abram built his first altar in the land at Genesis 12:6-7. Chapter 27:12-13 assigns six tribes to each mountain, and Joshua 8:30-35 records the ceremony. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads the place the LORD will choose as already chosen and sets it at Gerizim, the old dispute behind John 4:20.
The directions place the two mountains near the Oak of Moreh, and the oaks at Shechem return in Israel's story. Jacob buried his household's foreign gods under the oak near Shechem at Genesis 35:4. Joshua 24:26 sets a stone of witness under an oak there.
Deuteronomy 11:30
“It is said be near the plain, or oaks, or meadows, of Moreh, which was one of the first places that Abraham came to in Canaan; so that in sending them thither, to hear the blessing and the curse, God reminded them of the promise he made to Abraham in that very place, Gen. xii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 11:31-32
The general charge of chapters 6 to 11 ends here, so "all the statutes and ordinances" of verse 32 are those that begin at 12:1. Moses says "you are about to cross the Jordan" as a man who will stay behind, having given the reason at 1:37, 3:26 and 4:21. From here the book turns from what God did to what Israel is to do.
Deuteronomy 11:31
“For ye shall pass over Jordan, to go in to possess the land Which the Lord your God giveth you,.... They were now near it, and by this they are assured they should pass over it, in order to take possession of the land God had given them, and which gift of his was a sufficient title to it: and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein: should not only take possession of it, but make their abode in it; they are assured hereby of continuance in it, on condition they obeyed the laws of God, as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 11:31
“The institution of this service to be done in Canaan was an assurance to them that they should be brought into possession of it, and a token like that which God gave to Moses ( Exod. iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The pair statutes and ordinances opened this speech at 5:1, so chapters 5 to 11 sit between the two uses. Barnes reads chapters 12 to 26 as Moses applying the Decalogue to the worship, civil life and social life of the people. Verse 32 hands the listener from one part to the next.
Deuteronomy 11:32
“And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments,.... Take notice of them, and heed unto them, so as to practise them: which I set before you this day; repeated in order to them, on the observance of which depended their continuance in the land of Canaan; and therefore this is so often repeated and urged.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Spoken address, the last of the general charges before the statutes begin at 12:1, as 11 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The line drawn through the audience | Verse 2 says the speech is for the men who saw the discipline of the LORD and not for their children. The published note records that the word rendered discipline carries teaching along with correction, so what those men watched in Egypt is counted as their schooling.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 11, the note on verses 1 to 3, which cites Keil and Delitzsch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710. | Deuteronomy 11:2, Deuteronomy 11:7 |
| Love commanded three times | The chapter commands love at verses 1, 13 and 22, and Deuteronomy 6:5 is where the book first asks for it. Verse 13 repeats the demand of the Shema almost word for word and hangs the rain on it.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 11, the note on verses 1 to 3, and the note on verses 13 to 15. | Deuteronomy 11:1, Deuteronomy 11:13, Deuteronomy 11:22 |
| Egypt weighed against the land | Verse 10 describes a field watered by human labour out of the Nile. Verse 11 describes hills and valleys that drink rain from heaven, which puts the harvest out of a farmer's hands and under the sky.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 11, the note on verses 10 to 12, which cites Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Keil and Delitzsch. | Deuteronomy 11:10, Deuteronomy 11:11 |
| The five verbs of holding fast | Verse 22 stacks five verbs in one sentence, to keep, to do, to love, to walk and to hold fast. The last of them is the verb Genesis 2:24 uses of a man joined to his wife, so the tie asked of Israel is put in the language of a bond that holds.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 11, the note on verses 22 and 23, which cites John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, and Keil and Delitzsch. | Deuteronomy 11:22, Deuteronomy 10:20 |
| This day, said over and over | The words this day fall eight times in this chapter and seventy times in the book, as the published note on verses 26 to 28 records. The repetition keeps the covenant from becoming something that happened to an earlier generation.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 11, the note on verses 26 to 28, which cites Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Keil and Delitzsch. | Deuteronomy 11:26, Deuteronomy 11:27, Deuteronomy 11:28, Deuteronomy 11:32 |
The New Testament's use
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The rain clause of verse 17 runs a long way. Solomon prays it back at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8:35. Elijah enacts it at 1 Kings 17:1, where he swears there will be no dew or rain except at his word. James 5:17 reads that drought as an answer to a man's prayer and measures it at three years and six months. Revelation 11:6 gives the two witnesses power to shut heaven so that it does not rain.
The promise of verse 24 is handed to Joshua almost word for word at Joshua 1:3-4 after Moses dies. Genesis 15:18 had given the same span to Abram. The published note records that the description runs wider than Israel ever held. Joshua 13:1 says much land remains to be possessed. The nearest it came is 1 Kings 4:21, where Solomon reigns from the river to the border of Egypt.
The fear and the dread of verse 25 were promised at Exodus 23:27, and Rahab reports them as fact at Joshua 2:9.
The two ways set out
Verses 26 to 28 lay out the close of the whole book in three verses. Chapters 27 and 28 stage the blessing and the curse at length, fourteen verses of blessing against fifty-four of curse. Deuteronomy 30:19 puts the choice one last time as life and death, blessing and cursing. The site's dossier carries this as the theology entry The Blessing and the Curse, anchored at 11:26 and 30:19.
Where Gerizim became a dispute
The Samaritan Pentateuch reads the phrase about the place the LORD will choose as a place already chosen, and puts it at Gerizim. The published note on verses 29 and 30 names that reading as the old dispute behind the words of the woman at John 4:20. The site states no verdict on the reading and records the witness.
Dathan and Abiram without Korah
Numbers 16 gives the account of the revolt, and there Korah leads it with Dathan and Abiram beside him. Verse 6 names the two Reubenites and their households and leaves Korah out. Numbers 26:11 records that the sons of Korah did not die. The published note lets both books stand as they are written.
Keep studying
Studies1
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
The Jewish annual reading cycle, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, portions 46 and 47; This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 11, the note on verses 31 and 32, which marks the general charge of chapters 6 to 11 as ending at verse 32 and This site's published structure of Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, which places the chapter inside the second address at 4:44 to 26:19.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, LETTER 46.2; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.