Deuteronomy 11:26

Anticipation of a Blessing and Cursing Ceremony

11:26 Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ¹ 

Deuteronomy 11:32

11:32 Be certain to keep all the statutes and ordinances that I am presenting to you today.

Deuteronomy 31:5

31:5 The Lord will deliver them over to you and you will do to them according to the whole commandment I have given you.

Deuteronomy 1:30

1:30 The Lord your God is about to go ²  ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt ³ 

Deuteronomy 1:33

1:33 the one who was constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp. He appeared by fire at night and cloud by day, to show you the way you ought to go.

Deuteronomy 4:8

4:8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just ⁴  as this whole law ⁵  that I am about to share with ⁶  you today?

Deuteronomy 1:8

1:8 Look! I have already given the land to you. ⁷  Go, occupy the territory that I, ⁸  the Lord, promised ⁹  to give to your ancestors ¹⁰  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants.” ¹¹ 

[11:26]  ¹ 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.

[1:30]  ² tn The Hebrew participle indicates imminent future action here, though some English versions treat it as a predictive future (“will go ahead of you,” NCV; cf. also TEV, CEV).

[1:30]  ³ tn Heb “according to all which he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.”

[4:8]  ³ tn Or “pure”; or “fair”; Heb “righteous.”

[4:8]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת (hattorah hazzo’t), in this context, refers specifically to the Book of Deuteronomy. That is, it is the collection of all the חֻקִּים (khuqqim, “statutes,” 4:1) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim, “ordinances,” 4:1) to be included in the covenant text. In a full canonical sense, of course, it pertains to the entire Pentateuch or Torah.

[4:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “place before.”

[1:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “I have placed before you the land.”

[1:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” Since the Lord is speaking, it is preferable for clarity to supply the first person pronoun in the translation.

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “swore” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). This refers to God’s promise, made by solemn oath, to give the patriarchs the land.

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 11, 21, 35).

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “their seed after them.”