Text -- Deuteronomy 11:16-25 (NET)

Exhortation to Instruction and Obedience

11:16 Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! 11:17 Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will close up the sky so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed from the good land that the Lord is about to give you. 11:18 Fix these words of mine into your mind and being, and tie them as a reminder on your hands and let them be symbols 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, 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. 11:22 For if you carefully observe all of these commandments I am giving you and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, and remain loyal to him, 11:23 then he 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 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. 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.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Deu 11:16

¹ tn Heb “Watch yourselves lest your heart turns and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

NET Notes: Deu 11:17

¹ tn Heb “will become hot”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “will be kindled”; NAB “will flare up”; NIV, NLT “will burn.”

² tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

³ tn Or “be destroyed”; NAB, NIV “will soon perish.”

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 11:4.

NET Notes: Deu 11:18

¹ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

² tn On the Hebrew term טוֹטָפֹת (totafot, “reminders”), cf. Deut 6:4-9.

NET Notes: Deu 11:19

¹ tn Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”

NET Notes: Deu 11:21

¹ tn Heb “like the days of the heavens upon the earth,” that is, forever.

NET Notes: Deu 11:22

¹ tn Heb “this commandment.” See note at Deut 5:30.

² 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.

³ tn Heb “walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV); TEV “do everything he commands.”

NET Notes: Deu 11:23

¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

NET Notes: Deu 11:24

¹ 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.

² 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.”