Old Testament Commentary - Deuteronomy 11

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
CHAPTER 11 Thou shalt love and obey the Lord thy God—If Israel obeys they shall be blessed with rain and harvests and drive out mighty nations—Israel must learn God's laws and teach them—Blessings flow from obedience; cursings attend disobedience.
1 THEREFORE thou shalt ^alove the LORD thy God, and keep his ^bcharge, and his statutes, and his ^cjudgments, and his commandments, alway. 2 And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the ^achastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, 3 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 And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the ^aRed sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day; 5 And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; 6 And what he did unto ^aDathan 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 ^ball the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: 7 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be ^astrong, and go in and ^bpossess the land, whither ye go to possess it; 9 And that ye may ^aprolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your ^bfathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10 ¶ 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 ^aherbs: 11 But the ^aland, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12 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.
13 ¶ And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to ^alove the LORD your God, and to ^bserve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 That I will give you the ^arain of your land in his due season, the ^bfirst rain and the ^clatter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy ^dcorn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not ^adeceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17 And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he ^ashut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye ^bperish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
18 ¶ Therefore shall ye ^alay up these my ^bwords in your ^cheart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your ^dhand, that they may be as ^efrontlets between your eyes. 19 And ye shall ^ateach them your ^bchildren, 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. 20 And thou shalt write them upon the ^adoor posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: 21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your ^achildren, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, ^bas the days of heaven upon the earth.
22 ¶ For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to ^awalk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; 23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall ^apossess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. 24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river ^aEuphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall ^byour coast be. 25 There shall no man be able to ^astand 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.
26 ¶ Behold, I set before you this day a ^ablessing and a ^bcurse^a; 27 A ^ablessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a ^acurse, if ye will not ^bobey 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.	26^a a blessing and a curse The Lord will bless those who do what he says, that is commanded. And if we will not do as he has commanded us we not only do not have the promise of a blessing, but we are further under a curse, the curse that the Lord will not keep his promises unto us and we will suffer accordingly. For the Lord has said, 'I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.' (D&C 82:10). Thus obedience is the key to both the blessing on the one hand and the curse upon the other. That is the freedom of agency and the law of justice in one, we are free to chose to do his will, but if we chose not to do his will we will suffer his judgment. Living in the truth of the Lord's word does and will make us truly free, but disobedience is as the chains of hell, and we are bound captive to suffer the ends of the law of God that end of justice be served. Ye if we will repent, he has suffered for us and mercy does satisfy justice if we will repent and live as he has so commanded us to do.
29 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 ^ablessing upon mount ^bGerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. 30 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 ^achampaign over against Gilgal, beside the ^bplains of Moreh?
31 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. 32 And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.