Deuteronomy 11:3-13

3 that he let loose in Egypt on Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land,

4 the way he took care of the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, burying them in the waters of the Red Sea as they pursued you. God drowned them. And you're standing here today alive.

5 Nor was it your children who saw how God took care of you in the wilderness up until the time you arrived here,

6 what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how the Earth opened its jaws and swallowed them with their families - their tents, and everything around them - right out of the middle of Israel.

7 Yes, it was you - your eyes - that saw every great thing that God did.

8 So it's you who are in charge of keeping the entire commandment that I command you today so that you'll have the strength to invade and possess the land that you are crossing the river to make your own.

9 Your obedience will give you a long life on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors and their children, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 The land you are entering to take up ownership isn't like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden.

11 But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky.

12 It's a land that God, your God, personally tends - he's the gardener - he alone keeps his eye on it all year long.

13 From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you,

Deuteronomy 11:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 11

In this chapter, the exhortation to love the Lord, and keep his commands, is repeated and urged again and again from various considerations; as not only from the chastisement of Pharaoh and the wicked Egyptians, but of such Israelites who offended the Lord, and transgressed his law, De 12:1-7, from the goodness and excellency of the land they were going to inherit, De 11:8-11, from the blessing of rain that would come upon it, and be productive of all good things for man and beast, in case of obedience, and a restraint of it in case of disobedience, De 11:12-17, from the continuance of them and their offspring in the land, should they be careful to observe the commands themselves, and teach them their children, De 11:18-21, and from the extensiveness of their conquests and dominions, De 11:22-25 and from the different issue and effects of their conduct and behaviour, a blessing upon them if obedient, but a curse if disobedient, De 11:26-28 and the chapter is concluded with an exhortation to pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal; the situation of which places is described when they should come into the land of Canaan, of which they are assured, De 11:29-32.