Deuteronomy 11:26
in Deuteronomy 11See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
KJV
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
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This verse in Deuteronomy 11
Commentary
6 notes on this verseBehold, 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.
This site's exposition
I am setting before you a blessing and a curse
on 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. The choice comes last at 30:19 as life and death.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Behold, the wondrous benefit of observance and the wondrous calamity of transgression. Whence the Lord through Moses: "Behold, I set before thee blessing and curse: blessing, if thou shalt keep My commandments: curse, if thou shalt not keep them." The Lord places us in the …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
), that is, the rewards and the punishments, as they stand in the promises and the threatenings, which are the great sanctions of the law, taking hold of hope and fear, those two handles of the soul, by which it is caught, held, and managed.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse,.... Meaning the law of God, and the statutes, judgments, and commandments of it; which, if obeyed, blessings would be bestowed upon them; but if disobeyed, they would be liable to the curses of it, as the following words explain it; see Deu 30:15 everyone of the Israelites were called upon to see and consider this matter, it being an interesting one to them all.
Thou shalt keep his charge, that is, the oracles of his word and ordinances of his worship, with which they were entrusted and for which they were accountable. It is a phrase often used concerning the office of the priests and Levites, for all Israel was a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רְאֵ֗ה | reeh | see | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| אָנֹכִ֛י | ʾanokhi | I | H595 → | 359 times |
| נֹתֵ֥ן | noten | [am] setting | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם | lifneikhem | <to> before you | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| הַיּ֑וֹם | haiyom | this day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| בְּרָכָ֖ה | berakhah | a blessing | H1293 → | 69 times |
| וּקְלָלָֽה׃ | ukelalah | and a curse | H7045 → | 33 times |
רְאֵ֗הsee
reehH7200 →1300 times
אָנֹכִ֛יI
ʾanokhiH595 →359 times
נֹתֵ֥ן[am] setting
notenH5414 →2011 times
לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם<to> before you
lifneikhemH6440 →2123 times
הַיּ֑וֹםthis day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
בְּרָכָ֖הa blessing
berakhahH1293 →69 times
וּקְלָלָֽה׃and a curse
ukelalahH7045 →33 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Galatians 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 27:26
‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Deuteronomy 11:26–28
See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 8:7
because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- Romans 3:19–20
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- James 2:9–11
But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
- Deuteronomy 27:26
Through
Deuteronomy 30:1“When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you,
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 30:15
See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster.
- 1 Kings 8:47–48
and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done…
- Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,
- Deuteronomy 30:15
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies6
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.