Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 11:13-28 
Context11:13 Now, if you pay close attention 1 to my commandments that I am giving you today and love 2 the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, 3 11:14 then he promises, 4 “I will send rain for your land 5 in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, 6 so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil. 11:15 I will provide pasture 7 for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”
11:16 Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! 8 11:17 Then the anger of the Lord will erupt 9 against you and he will close up the sky 10 so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed 11 from the good land that the Lord 12 is about to give you. 11:18 Fix these words of mine into your mind and being, 13 and tie them as a reminder on your hands and let them be symbols 14 on your forehead. 11:19 Teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, 15 as you lie down, and as you get up. 11:20 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates 11:21 so that your days and those of your descendants may be extended in the land which the Lord promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of heaven itself. 16 11:22 For if you carefully observe all of these commandments 17 I am giving you 18 and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, 19 and remain loyal to him, 11:23 then he 20 will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. 11:24 Every place you set your foot 21 will be yours; your border will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the Mediterranean Sea. 22 11:25 Nobody will be able to resist you; the Lord your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.
11:26 Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 23 11:27 the blessing if you take to heart 24 the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, 11:28 and the curse if you pay no attention 25 to his 26 commandments and turn from the way I am setting before 27 you today to pursue 28 other gods you have not known.
1 tn Heb “if hearing, you will hear.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute to emphasize the verbal idea. The translation renders this emphasis with the word “close.”
2 tn Again, the Hebrew term אָהַב (’ahav) draws attention to the reciprocation of divine love as a condition or sign of covenant loyalty (cf. Deut 6:5).
3 tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.
4 tn The words “he promises” do not appear in the Hebrew text but are needed in the translation to facilitate the transition from the condition (v. 13) to the promise and make it clear that the Lord is speaking the words of vv. 14-15.
5 tn Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.
6 sn The autumn and the spring rains. The “former” (יוֹרֶה, yoreh) and “latter” (מַלְקוֹשׁ, malqosh) rains come in abundance respectively in September/October and March/April. Planting of most crops takes place before the former rains fall and the harvests follow the latter rains.
7 tn Heb “grass in your field.”
8 tn Heb “Watch yourselves lest your heart turns and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.”
9 tn Heb “will become hot”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “will be kindled”; NAB “will flare up”; NIV, NLT “will burn.”
10 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
11 tn Or “be destroyed”; NAB, NIV “will soon perish.”
12 tn Heb “the
13 tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.
14 tn On the Hebrew term טוֹטָפֹת (totafot, “reminders”), cf. Deut 6:4-9.
15 tn Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”
16 tn Heb “like the days of the heavens upon the earth,” that is, forever.
17 tn Heb “this commandment.” See note at Deut 5:30.
18 tn Heb “commanding you to do it.” For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation and “to do it” has been left untranslated.
19 tn Heb “walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV); TEV “do everything he commands.”
20 tn Heb “the
21 tn Heb “the sole of your foot walks.” The placing of the foot symbolizes conquest and dominion, especially on land or on the necks of enemies (cf. Deut 1:36; Ps 7:13; Isa 63:3 Hab 3:19; Zech 9:13). See E. H. Merrill, NIDOTTE 1:992.
22 tn Heb “the after sea,” that is, the sea behind one when one is facing east, which is the normal OT orientation. Cf. ASV “the hinder sea.”
23 sn A blessing and a curse. Every extant treaty text of the late Bronze Age attests to a section known as the “blessings and curses,” the former for covenant loyalty and the latter for covenant breach. Blessings were promised rewards for obedience; curses were threatened judgments for disobedience. In the Book of Deuteronomy these are fully developed in 27:1–28:68. Here Moses adumbrates the whole by way of anticipation.
24 tn Heb “listen to,” that is, obey.
25 tn Heb “do not listen to,” that is, do not obey.
26 tn Heb “the commandments of the
27 tn Heb “am commanding” (so NASB, NRSV).
28 tn Heb “walk after”; NIV “by following”; NLT “by worshiping.” This is a violation of the first commandment, the most serious of the covenant violations (Deut 5:6-7).
