Deuteronomy 11:13-21

11:13 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.”

Exhortation to Instruction and Obedience

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 

[11:13]  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.”

[11:13]  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).

[11:13]  ³ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[11:14]  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.

[11:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.

[11:14]  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.

[11:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “grass in your field.”

[11:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “Watch yourselves lest your heart turns and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[11:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “will become hot”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “will be kindled”; NAB “will flare up”; NIV, NLT “will burn.”

[11:17]  ¹⁰ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[11:17]  ¹¹ tn Or “be destroyed”; NAB, NIV “will soon perish.”

[11:17]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 11:4.

[11:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[11:18]  ¹⁴ tn On the Hebrew term טוֹטָפֹת (totafot, “reminders”), cf. Deut 6:4-9.

[11:19]  ¹⁵ tn Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”

[11:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like the days of the heavens upon the earth,” that is, forever.