Deuteronomy 11

1So love the LORD your God, and always keep his requirements, his statutes, his rulings, and his commandments. 2Recognize today — for it is not your children I am speaking to, who have neither known nor seen it — the discipline of the LORD your God: his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3his signs and the deeds he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole land, 4what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and its chariots, how he made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they chased you, and the LORD destroyed them, and they are gone to this day, 5what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them, 7for it is your own eyes that have seen all the great work that the LORD has done. 8So keep the whole commandment that I am giving you today, so that you may have strength to go in and take possession of the land you are crossing over to possess, 9and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden. 11But the land you are crossing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks in water from the rain of the sky, 12a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are on it always, from the beginning of the year to its end.

13If you truly obey my commandments that I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14then I will give your land its rain at the right time, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and you will gather in your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil. 15I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be full. 16Be careful that your hearts are not led astray, so that you turn away and serve other gods and bow down to them, 17and the anger of the LORD blaze against you. Then he will shut up the sky so that there is no rain and the ground yields no crops, and you will quickly be wiped out from the good land that the LORD is giving you. 18Fix these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Tie them as a sign on your hand, and let them be a band between your eyes. 19Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so that you and your children may live long in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the sky remains above the earth.

22For if you carefully keep this whole commandment that I am giving you to follow, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23then the LORD will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you are. 24Every place where you set foot will be yours. Your territory will reach from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the River, the Euphrates, to the western sea. 25No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will put the dread and fear of you on the whole land where you set foot, as he promised you.

26See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, 28and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way I am commanding you today and follow other gods that you have not known.

29When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Are they not across the Jordan, beyond the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, facing Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken possession of it and are living in it, 32be careful to carry out all the statutes and rulings that I am setting before you today.