1Ngươi phải kính mến Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời ngươi, và hằng gìn giữ điều Ngài truyền ngươi phải gìn giữ, tức là luật lệ, mạng lịnh, và điều răn của Ngài. 2Ngày nay, các ngươi hãy nhìn biết (vì ta không nói cùng con trẻ các ngươi, bởi chúng nó chẳng biết chi, và cũng chẳng thấy chi) những lời răn dạy của Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời các ngươi, sự oai nghiêm Ngài, cánh tay quyền năng giơ thẳng ra của Ngài, 3những phép lạ và công việc Ngài làm ra giữa xứ Ê-díp-tô mà hại Pha-ra-ôn, vua Ê-díp-tô, và toàn xứ người. 4Hãy nhận biết điều Ngài làm cho đạo binh Ê-díp-tô, ngựa và xe Ê-díp-tô, trong khi chúng đuổi theo các ngươi, bị Ðức Giê-hô-va lấp nước Biển đỏ lại, và hủy diệt chúng nó đến ngày nay; 5việc Ngài đã làm cho các ngươi trong đồng vắng cho đến khi tới chốn nầy; 6và cũng hãy nhận biết điều Ngài làm cho Ða-than, A-bi-ram, con trai Ê-li-áp, cháu Ru-bên, khi đất tại giữa cả Y-sơ-ra-ên hả miệng nuốt hai người, gia quyến, luôn với trại và mọi vật chi theo họ. 7Vì tận mắt các ngươi đã thấy hết thảy những việc lớn mà Ðức Giê-hô-va đã làm. 8Vậy, phải gìn giữ hết thảy điều răn mà ta truyền cho các ngươi ngày nay, để các ngươi được mạnh mẽ, vào nhận lấy xứ mà mình sẽ chiếm được, 9hầu cho các ngươi sống lâu ngày trên đất mà Ðức Giê-hô-va đã thề ban cho tổ phụ các ngươi và cho dòng dõi của họ, tức là xứ đượm sữa và mật. 10Vì xứ ngươi sẽ vào nhận lấy chẳng phải như xứ Ê-díp-tô, là nơi mình đã ra khỏi; tại nơi ấy ngươi gieo mạ và phải nhờ lấy chân mình mà tuới, như một vườn rau cỏ; 11nhưng xứ các ngươi sẽ đi vào nhận lấy đó, là một xứ có núi và trũng, nhờ mưa trời mà được thấm tưới. 12Ấy là một xứ Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời ngươi săn sóc, mắt Ngài hằng đoái xem nó từ đầu năm đến cuối. 13Vậy, nếu các ngươi chăm chỉ nghe các điều răn ta truyền cho các ngươi ngày nay, hết lòng, hết ý kính mến Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời ngươi, và phục sự Ngài, 14thì ta sẽ cho mưa mùa thu và mưa mùa xuân xuống thuận thì tại trong xứ các ngươi; ngươi sẽ thâu góp ngũ cốc, rượu, và dầu của ngươi. 15Ta cũng sẽ khiến đồng ruộng ngươi sanh cỏ cho súc vật ngươi; ngươi sẽ ăn và được no nê. 16Các ngươi khá cẩn thận, kẻo lòng mình bị dụ dỗ, xây bỏ Chúa, mà hầu việc các thần khác, và quì lạy trước mặt chúng nó chăng; 17e cơn thạnh nộ của Ðức Giê-hô-va sẽ phừng lên cùng các ngươi, Ngài đóng các từng trời lại, nên nỗi chẳng có mưa nữa, đất không sanh sản: như vậy, các ngươi sẽ vội chết mất trong xứ tốt tươi nầy, là xứ mà Ðức Giê-hô-va ban cho các ngươi. 18Vậy, hãy cất để trong lòng và trong trí mình những lời ta nói cùng các ngươi, đeo nó như một dấu nơi tay, như một ấn chí giữa hai con mắt. 19Hãy dạy nó lại cho con cái mình, nói đến hoặc khi ngươi ngồi ở trong nhà hay là đi đường, hoặc khi ngươi nằm hay là khi chổi dậy. 20Cũng phải ghi các lời ấy trên cột nhà và trên cửa mình, 21hầu cho những ngày của các ngươi và của con cái các ngươi được nhiều thêm trong xứ mà Ðức Giê-hô-va đã thề ban cho tổ phụ các ngươi, y như những ngày của trời ở trên đất. 22Vì nhược bằng các ngươi cẩn thận gìn giữ hết thảy điều răn nầy mà ta truyền cho các ngươi phải làm lấy, kính mến Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời các ngươi, đi theo các đạo Ngài, và tríu mến Ngài, 23thì Ðức Giê-hô-va sẽ đuổi những dân tộc nầy ra khỏi trước mặt các ngươi, khiến các ngươi thắng được dân tộc lớn và mạnh hơn mình. 24Phàm nơi nào bàn chân các ngươi sẽ đạp đến, đều thuộc về các ngươi. Giới hạn các ngươi sẽ chạy từ đồng vắng tới Li-ban, từ sông Ơ-phơ-rát đến biển tây. 25Chẳng ai đứng nổi được trước mặt các ngươi; Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời các ngươi sẽ rải sự kinh khủng và sợ hãi trong khắp xứ các ngươi sẽ đạp chân lên, y như Ngài đã phán. 26Kìa, ngày nay ta đặt trước mặt các ngươi sự phước lành và sự rủa sả: 27sự phước lành, nếu các ngươi nghe theo các điều răn của Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời các ngươi, mà ta truyền cho ngày nay; 28sự rủa sả, nếu các ngươi không nghe theo các điều răn của Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời các ngươi, nhưng xây bỏ đường ta chỉ cho ngày nay, đặng đi theo các thần khác mà các ngươi không hề biết. 29Khi Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời ngươi khiến ngươi vào xứ đặng nhận lấy, thì phải rao sự chúc lành trên núi Ga-ri-xim, và sự chúc dữ trên núi Ê-banh. 30Hai núi nầy há chẳng phải ở bên kia sông Giô-đanh, qua khỏi đường tây, tại đất dân Ca-na-an ở trong đồng ruộng, đối ngang Ghinh-ganh, gần những cây dẻ bộp của Mô-rê sao? 31Vì các ngươi sẽ đi ngang qua sông Giô-đanh, đặng vào nhận lấy xứ mà Giê-hô-va Ðức Chúa Trời các ngươi ban cho; các ngươi sẽ lấy xứ làm sản nghiệp và ở tại đó. 32Vậy, phải cẩn thận làm theo hết thảy những luật lệ và mạng lịnh mà ngày nay ta đặt trước mặt các ngươi.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 Because
God has made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude (so the preceding chapter concludes),
therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God (so this begins). Those whom God has built up into families, whose beginning was small, but whose latter end greatly increases, should use that as an argument with themselves why they should serve God. Thou shalt
keep his charge, that is, the oracles of his word and ordinances of his worship, with which they were entrusted and for which they were accountable. It is a phrase often used concerning the office of the priests and Levites, for all Israel was a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Observe the connection of these two:
Thou shalt love the Lord and
keep his charge, since love will work in obedience, and that only is acceptable obedience which flows from a principle of love.
1John 5:3.
Mention is made of the great and terrible works of God which their
eyes had seen, Deut 11:7. This part of his discourse Moses addresses to the
seniors among the people, the elders in age; and probably the elders in office were so, and were now his immediate auditors: there were some among them that could remember their deliverance out of Egypt, all above fifty, and to them he speaks this, not to the children, who knew it by hearsay only,
Deut 11:2. Note, God's mercies to us when we were young we should remember and retain the impressions of when we are old; what our eyes have seen, especially in our early days, has affected us, and should be improved by us long after. They had seen what terrible judgments God had executed upon the enemies of Israel's peace, 1. Upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians that enslaved them. What a fine country was ruined and laid waste by one plague after another, to force Israel's enlargement!
Deut 11:3. What a fine army was entirely drowned in the Red Sea, to prevent Israel's being re-enslaved!
Deut 11:4. Thus did he give
Egypt for their ransom, Isa 43:3. Rather shall that famous kingdom be destroyed than that Israel shall not be delivered. 2. Upon Dathan and Abiram that embroiled them. Remember
what he did in the wilderness (
Deut 11:5), by how many necessary
chastisements (as they are called,
Deut 11:2) they were kept from ruining themselves, particularly when those daring Reubenites defied the authority of Moses and headed a dangerous rebellion against God himself, which threatened the ruin of a whole nation, and might have ended in that if the divine power had not immediately crushed the rebellion by burying the rebels alive, them and
all that was in their possession, Deut 11:6. What was done against them, though misinterpreted by the disaffected party (
Num 16:41), was really done in mercy to Israel. To be saved from the mischiefs of insurrections at home is as great a kindness to a people, and therefore lays them under as strong obligations, as protection from the invasion of enemies abroad.
8 Still Moses urges the same subject, as loth to conclude till he had gained his point.
If thou wilt enter into life, if thou wilt enter into Canaan, a type of that life, and find it a good land indeed to thee,
keep the commandments: Keep all the commandments which I command you this day; love God, and serve him with all your heart.
I. Because this was the way to get and keep possession of the promised land. 1. It was the way to get possession (
Deut 11:8):
That you may be strong for war, and so
go in and possess it. So little did they know either of hardship or hazard in the wars of Canaan that he does not say they should go in and fight for it; no, they had nothing in effect to do but go in and possess it. He does not go about to teach them the art of war, how to draw the bow, and use the sword, and keep ranks, that they might be strong, and go in and possess the land; no, but let them keep God's commandments, and their religion, while they are true to it, will be their strength, and secure their success. (2.) It was the way to keep possession (
Deut 11:9):
That you may prolong your days in this land that your eye is upon. Sin tends to the shortening of the days of particular persons and to the shortening of the days of a people's prosperity; but obedience will be a lengthening out of their tranquillity.
II. Because the land of Canaan, into which they were going, had a more sensible dependence upon the blessing of heaven than the land of Egypt had,
Deut 11:10-
Deut 11:12. Egypt was a country fruitful enough, but it was all flat, and was watered, not as other countries with rain (it is said of Egypt,
Zech 14:18, that it
has no rain ), but by the overflowing of the river Nile at a certain season of the year, to the improving of which there was necessary a great deal of the art and labour of the husbandman, so that in Egypt a man must bestow as much cost and pains upon a field as upon a garden of herbs. And this made them the more apt to imagine that the power of their own hands got them this wealth. But the land of Canaan was an uneven country, a land of hills and valleys, which not only gave a more pleasing prospect to the eye, but yielded a greater variety of soils for the several purposes of the husbandman. It was a land that had no great rivers in it, except Jordan, but
drank water of the rain of heaven, and so, 1. Saved them a great deal of labour. While the Egyptians were ditching and guttering in the fields, up to the knees in mud, to bring water to their land, which otherwise would soon become like the heath in the wilderness, the Israelites could sit in their houses, warm and easy, and leave it to God to water their land with the former and the latter rain, which is called
the river of God (
Pss 65:9), perhaps in allusion to, and contempt of, the river of Egypt, which that nation was so proud of. Note, The better God has provided, by our outward condition, for our ease and convenience, the more we should abound in his service: the less we have to do for our bodies the more we should do for God and our souls. 2. So he directed them to look upwards to God, who
giveth us rain form heaven and fruitful seasons (
Acts 14:17), and promised to be himself as
the dew unto Israel, Hos 14:5. Note, (1.) Mercies bring with them the greatest comfort and sweetness when we see them coming from heaven, the immediate gifts of divine Providence. (2.) The closer dependence we have upon God the more cheerful we should be in our obedience to him. See how Moses here magnifies the land of Canaan above all other lands, that the
eyes of God were always upon it, that is, they should be so, to see that nothing was wanting, while they kept close to God and duty; its fruitfulness should be not so much the happy effect of its soil as the immediate fruit of the divine blessing; this may be inferred from its present state, for it is said to be at this day, now that God has departed from it, as barren a spot of ground as perhaps any under heaven. Call it not
Naomi: call it
Marah. III. Because God would certainly bless them with an abundance of all good things if they would love him and serve him (
Deut 11:13-
Deut 11:15):
I will give you the rain of your land in due season, so that they should neither want it when the ground called for it nor have it in excess; but they should have the former rain, which fell at seed-time, and the latter rain, which fell before the harvest,
Amos 4:7. This represented all the seasonable blessings which God would bestow upon them, especially spiritual comforts, which should come
as the latter and former, rain, Hos 6:3. And the earth thus watered produced, 1. Fruits for the service of man,
corn and wine, and oil, Pss 104:13-
Pss 104:15. 2. Grass for the cattle, that they also might be serviceable to man, that
he might eat of them and be full, Deut 11:15. Godliness hath here the
promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil will.
IV. Because their revolt from God to idols. would certainly be their ruin:
Take heed that your hearts be not deceived, Deut 11:16,
Deut 11:17. All that forsake God to set their affection upon, or pay their devotion to, any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived to their own destruction; and this will aggravate it that it was purely for want of taking heed. A little care would have prevented their being imposed upon by the great deceiver. To awaken them to take heed, Moses here tells them plainly that if they should
turn aside to other gods, 1. They would provoke the wrath of God against them; and
who knows the power of that anger? 2. Good things would be turned away from them; the heaven would withhold its rain, and then of course the earth would not yield its fruit. 3. Evil things would come upon them; they would perish quickly form off this good land. And the better the land was the more grievous it would be to perish from it. The goodness of the land would not be their security, when the badness of the inhabitants had made them ripe for ruin.
18 Here, I. Moses repeats the directions he had given for the guidance and assistance of the people in their obedience, and for the keeping up of religion among them (
Deut 11:18-
Deut 11:20), which is much to the same purport with what we had before,
Deut 6:6, etc. Let us all be directed by the three rules here given: - 1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God:
Lay up these words in your heart and in your soul. The heart must be the treasury or store-house in which the word of God must be laid up, to be used upon all occasions. We cannot expect good practices in the conversation, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles, in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God. Bind these words for a sign
upon your hand, which is always in view (
Isa 49:16),
and as frontlets between your eyes, which you cannot avoid the sight of; let them be as ready and familiar to you, and have your eye as constantly upon them, as if they were
written upon your door-posts, and could not be overlooked either when you go out or when you come in. Thus we must
lay God's judgments before us, having a constant regard to them, as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work,
Pss 119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Let it be the subject of our familiar discourse, wherever we are; especially with our children, who must be taught the service of God, as the one thing needful, much more needful than either the rules of decency or the calling they must live by in this world. Great care and pains must be taken to acquaint children betimes, and to affect them, with the word of God and the wondrous things of his law. Nor will any thing contribute more to the prosperity and perpetuity of religion in a nation than the good education of children: if the seed be holy, it is the substance of a land.
II. He repeats the assurances he had before given them, in God's name, of prosperity and success if they were obedient. 1. They should have a happy settlement,
Deut 11:21. Their days should be multiplied; and, when they were fulfilled, the days of their children likewise should be many, as the days of heaven, that is, Canaan should be sure to them and their heirs for ever, as long as the world stands, if they did not by their own sin throw themselves out of it. 2. It should not be in the power of their enemies to give them any disturbance, nor make them upon any account uneasy. If you will
keep God's commandments, and be careful to do your duty (
Deut 11:22), God will not only crown the labours of the husbandman with plenty of the fruits of the earth, but he will own and succeed the more glorious undertakings of the men of war. Victory shall attend your arms; which way soever they turn, God will drive out these nations, and put you in possession of their land,
Deut 11:23,
Deut 11:24. Their territories should be enlarged to the utmost extent of the promise,
Gen 15:18. And all their neighbours should stand in awe of them,
Deut 11:25. Nothing contributes more to the making of a nation considerable abroad, valuable to its friends and formidable to its enemies, than religion reigning in it; for who can be against those that have God for them? And he is certainly for those that are sincerely for him,
Prov 14:34.
26 Here Moses concludes his general exhortations to obedience; and his management is very affecting, and such as, one would think, should have engaged them for ever to God, and should have left impressions upon them never to be worn out.
I. He sums up all his arguments for obedience in two words,
the blessing and the curse (
Deut 11:26), that is, the rewards and the punishments, as they stand in the promises and the threatenings, which are the great sanctions of the law, taking hold of hope and fear, those two handles of the soul, by which it is caught, held, and managed. These two, the blessing and the curse, he set before them, that is, 1. He explained them, that they might know them; he enumerated the particulars contained both in the blessing and in the curse, that they might see the more fully how desirable the blessing was, and how dreadful the curse. 2. He confirmed them, that they might believe them, made it evident to them, by the proofs he produced of his own commission, that the blessing was not a fool's paradise, nor the curse a bugbear, but that both were real declarations of the purpose of God concerning them. 3. He charged them to choose which of these they would have, so fairly does he deal with them, and so far is he from
putting out the eyes of these men, as he was charged,
Num 16:14. They and we are plainly told on what terms we stand with Almighty God. (1.) If we be obedient to his laws, we may be sure of a blessing,
Deut 11:27. But, (2.) If we be disobedient, we may be as sure of a curse,
Deut 11:28.
Say you to the righteous (for God has said it, and all the world cannot unsay it) that
it shall be well with them: but woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them. II. He appoints a public and solemn proclamation to be made of the blessing and curse which he had set before them, upon the two mountains of Gerizim and Ebal,
Deut 11:29,
Deut 11:30. We have more particular directions for this solemnity in
Deut 27:11, etc., and an account of the performance of it,
Josh 8:33, etc. It was to be done, and was done, immediately upon their coming into Canaan, that when they first took possession of that land they might know upon what terms they stood. The place where this was to be done is particularly described by Moses, though he never saw it, which is one circumstance among many that evidences his divine instructions. It is said be near the
plain, or
oaks, or
meadows, of
Moreh, which was one of the first places that Abraham came to in Canaan; so that in sending them thither, to hear the blessing and the curse, God reminded them of the promise he made to Abraham in that very place,
Gen 12:6,
Gen 12:7. The mention of this appointment here serves, 1. For the encouragement of their faith in the promise of God, that they should be masters of Canaan quickly. Do it (says Moses) on the other side Jordan (
Deut 11:30), for you may be confident
you shall pass over Jordan, Deut 11:31. The institution of this service to be done in Canaan was an assurance to them that they should be brought into possession of it, and a token like that which God gave to Moses (
Exod 3:12):
You shall serve God upon this mountain. And, 2. It serves for an engagement upon them to be obedient, that they might escape that curse, and obtain that blessing, which, besides what they had already heard, they must shortly be witnesses to the solemn publication of (
Deut 11:32):
You shall observe to do the statutes and judgements, that you may not in that solemnity be witnesses against yourselves.