Deuteronomy 11

Passage overview

Deuteronomy 11 urges Israel to love the LORD and keep His commandments by remembering what they have seen. The chapter moves from past experience to future obedience, then concludes with the choice between blessing and curse.

  • Verses 1–7: Moses reminds the people of God’s mighty acts in Egypt and the wilderness.
  • Verses 8–17: Obedience is connected with life in the land, while turning to other gods is connected with drought and loss.
  • Verses 18–25: God’s words are to be kept in the heart, taught to children, and practiced daily.
  • Verses 26–32: Blessing and curse are set before Israel, with Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal named as signs connected to this choice.

1verseTherefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.

2verseKnow this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,

3versehis signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;

4verseand what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day;

5verseand what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

6verseand what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel;

7versebut your eyes have seen all of the LORD’s great work which he did.

8verseTherefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess;

9verseand that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10verseFor the land, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;

11versebut the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,

12versea land which the LORD your God cares for. The LORD your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

13verseIt shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14versethat I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

15verseI will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

16verseBe careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;

17verseand the LORD’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD gives you.

18verseTherefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

19verseYou shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

20verseYou shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates;

21versethat your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

22verseFor if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him—

23versethen the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

24verseEvery place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border.

25verseNo man will be able to stand before you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.

26verseBehold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

27versethe blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today;

28verseand the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

29verseIt shall happen, when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30verseAren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

31verseFor you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it.

32verseYou shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

Key Message and Overall Meaning

The chapter stresses that obedience is not detached from memory. Israel’s past experience of deliverance and discipline should shape its future life in the land. The promised land is described as dependent on God’s care, and the people are called to respond with love, obedience, and faithful teaching across generations.

Points for Reflection

  • How does remembering past grace affect present obedience?
  • What practices help keep God’s word close in ordinary family and community life?
  • How does the text present moral choice as something with communal consequences?

Apply It to Yourself

  • Choose one remembered experience of guidance or mercy and let it shape a present decision.
  • Place one passage or principle where it can be seen, discussed, or remembered regularly.
  • Consider how your choices affect not only you, but also family, coworkers, or the wider community.