Julia Evelina Smith Parker (1876)

1And love thou Jehovah thy God, and watch his watches and his laws and his judgments and his commands, all the days. 2And know ye this day, that not with your sons who knew not, and who saw not the corrections of Jehovah your God, his greatness, his strong hand and his extended arm, 3And his signs and his doings which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4And what he did to the army of Egypt, to his horses and to his chariots, that he caused the water of the sea of sedge to overflow upon their face in their pursuing after you, and Jehovah will destroy them even to this day; 5And what he did to you in the desert till your coming to this place; 6And what he did to Dathan and to Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Reuben; that the earth opened her mouth and she will swallow them down, and their houses, and their tents, and every living thing which is at their feet in the midst of all Israel: 7For your eyes saw every great doing of Jehovah which he did. 8And watch ye every command which I command thee this day, so that ye shall be strengthened and go in and possess the land where ye are passing over there to possess it; 9And so that ye shall prolong the days upon the land which Jehovah sware to your fathers to give to them, and to their seed; a land flowing milk and honey. 10For the land where thou goest in there to possess it, it is not as the land of Egypt, where ye came from there, when thou shalt sow thy seed, and thou wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of green things: 11And the land where ye are passing over there to possess it, a land of mountains and valleys; according to the rain of the heavens it will drink water. 12A land which Jehovah thy God sought for it: continually are the eyes of Jehovah thy God upon it from the beginning of the year, and even to the last of the year.  13And it was if hearing, ye shall hear to the commands which I command you this day, to love Jehovah your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14And I gave the rain of your land in its time, the early and the latter rain; and gather thy grain and thy new wine and thy new oil. 15And I gave the green herb in thy field for thy cattle, and eat thou and be satisfied. 16Watch ye to yourselves, lest your heart shall be enticed, and ye turn aside and serve other gods, and worship to them: 17And the anger of Jehovah kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens and there shall not be rain, and the land shall not give her produce, and ye perished quickly from off the good land that Jehovah gave to you. 18And put these words upon your heart and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they were for bands between your eyes. 19And teach them to your sons to speak in them in thy resting in thy house, and in thy walking in the way, and in thy lying down, and in thy rising up 20And write them upon the doorposts of thy house and upon thy gates.: 21So that your days shall be multiplied, and the days of your sons, upon the land which Jehovah sware to your fathers to give to them, according to the days of the heavens upon the earth. 22For if watching, ye shall watch all this command which I command you to do it, to love Jehovah thy God, to go in all his ways, and to cleave to him; 23And Jehovah dispossessed all these nations from before you, and ye possessed nations great and strong above you. 24Every place which the sole of your foot shall tread upon it, to you shall it be, from the desert and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, and even to the last sea shall be your boundary. 25A man shall not stand up against your face: your terror and your fear, Jehovah your God shall give upon the face of all the earth which ye shall tread upon it, as he spake to you. 26See, I give before you this day, a blessing and a cursing: 27A blessing when ye shall hear to the commands of Jehovah your God which I command you this day; 28And a cursing if ye shall not hear to the commands of Jehovah your God, and ye turned aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which thou knewest not 29And it was when Jehovah thy. God shall bring thee in to the land where thou goest in there to possess it, and give thou the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the cursing upon mount Ebal. 30Are they not in the other side of Jordan behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite dwelling in the desert over against Gilgal, by the oaks of Moreh? 31For ye are passing over Jordan to go in to possess the land which Jehovah your God gave to you; and ye possessed it and dwelt in it 32And watch ye to do all the laws and the judgments which I give before you this day.


Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary
 1   AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu. 11:1-32)
Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge--The reason for the frequent repetition of the same or similar counsels is to be traced to the infantine character and state of the church, which required line upon line and precept upon precept. Besides, the Israelites were a headstrong and perverse people, impatient of control, prone to rebellion, and, from their long stay in Egypt, so violently addicted to idolatry, that they ran imminent risk of being seduced by the religion of the country to which they were going, which, in its characteristic features, bore a strong resemblance to that of the country they had left.

 2   I speak not with your children which have not known . . . But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did--Moses is here giving a brief summary of the marvels and miracles of awful judgment which God had wrought in effecting their release from the tyranny of Pharaoh, as well as those which had taken place in the wilderness. He knew that he might dwell upon these, for he was addressing many who had been witnesses of those appalling incidents. For it will be remembered that the divine threatening that they should die in the wilderness, and its execution, extended only to males from twenty years and upward, who were able to go forth to war. No males under twenty years of age, no females, and none of the tribe of Levi, were objects of the denunciation (see Num 14:28-Num 14:30; Num 16:49). There might, therefore, have been many thousands of the Israelites at that time of whom Moses could say, "Your eyes have seen all the great acts which He did"; and with regard to those the historic review of Moses was well calculated to stir up their minds to the duty and advantages of obedience.

 10   For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out--The physical features of Palestine present a striking contrast to those of the land of bondage. A widely extending plain forms the cultivated portion of Egypt, and on the greater part of this low and level country rain never falls. This natural want is supplied by the annual overflow of the Nile, and by artificial means from the same source when the river has receded within its customary channel. Close by the bank the process of irrigation is very simple. The cultivator opens a small sluice on the edge of the square bed in which seed has been sown, making drill after drill; and when a sufficient quantity of water has poured in, he shuts it up with his foot. Where the bank is high, the water is drawn up by hydraulic engines, of which there are three kinds used, of different power, according to the subsidence of the stream. The water is distributed in small channels or earthen conduits, simple in construction, worked by the foot, and formed with a mattock by the gardener who directs their course, and which are banked up or opened, as occasion may require, by pressing in the soil with the foot. Thus was the land watered in which the Israelites had dwelt so long. Such vigilance and laborious industry would not be needed in the promised land. Instead of being visited with moisture only at one brief season and left during the rest of the year under a withering blight, every season it would enjoy the benign influences of a genial climate. The hills would attract the frequent clouds, and in the refreshing showers the blessing of God would especially rest upon the land.

 12   A land which the Lord thy God careth for--that is, watering it, as it were, with His own hands, without human aid or mechanical means.

 14   the first rain and the latter rain--The early rain commenced in autumn, that is, chiefly during the months of September and October, while the latter rain fell in the spring of the year, that is, during the months of March and April. It is true that occasional showers fell all the winter; but, at the autumnal and vernal seasons, they were more frequent, copious, and important; for the early rain was necessary, after a hot and protracted summer, to prepare the soil for receiving the seed; and the latter rain, which shortly preceded the harvest, was of the greatest use in invigorating the languishing powers of vegetation (Jer 5:24; Joel 2:23; Amos 4:7; Jas 5:7).

 15   I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle--Undoubtedly the special blessing of the former and the latter rain [Deut 11:14] was one principal cause of the extraordinary fertility of Canaan in ancient times. That blessing was promised to the Israelites as a temporal reward for their fidelity to the national covenant [Deut 11:13]. It was threatened to be withdrawn on their disobedience or apostasy; and most signally is the execution of that threatening seen in the present sterility of Palestine. MR. LOWTHIAN, an English farmer, who was struck during his journey from Joppa to Jerusalem by not seeing a blade of grass, where even in the poorest localities of Britain some wild vegetation is found, directed his attention particularly to the subject, and pursued the inquiry during a month's residence in Jerusalem, where he learned that a miserably small quantity of milk is daily sold to the inhabitants at a dear rate, and that chiefly asses' milk. "Most clearly," says he, "did I perceive that the barrenness of large portions of the country was owing to the cessation of the early and latter rain, and that the absence of grass and flowers made it no longer the land (Deut 11:9) flowing with milk and honey."

 18   lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them--(See on Deut 6:1).

 24   Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours--not as if the Jews should be lords of the world, but of every place within the promised land. It should be granted to them and possessed by them, on conditions of obedience:
from the wilderness--the Arabah on the south;
Lebanon--the northern limit;
Euphrates--their boundary on the east. Their grant of dominion extended so far, and the right was fulfilled to Solomon.
even unto the uttermost sea--the Mediterranean.

 26   Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse--(See on Deut 27:11).