Ulangan 11:16-17

Exhortation to Instruction and Obedience

11:16 Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! ¹  11:17 Then the anger of the Lord will erupt ²  against you and he will close up the sky ³  so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed ⁴  from the good land that the Lord ⁵  is about to give you.

Ulangan 11:22-23

11:22 For if you carefully observe all of these commandments ⁶  I am giving you ⁷  and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, ⁸  and remain loyal to him, 11:23 then he ⁹  will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

Ulangan 11:26-29

Anticipation of a Blessing and Cursing Ceremony

11:26 Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ¹⁰  11:27 the blessing if you take to heart ¹¹  the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, 11:28 and the curse if you pay no attention ¹²  to his ¹³  commandments and turn from the way I am setting before ¹⁴  you today to pursue ¹⁵  other gods you have not known. 11:29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ¹⁶ 

[11:16]  ¹ tn Heb “Watch yourselves lest your heart turns and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[11:17]  ² tn Heb “will become hot”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “will be kindled”; NAB “will flare up”; NIV, NLT “will burn.”

[11:17]  ³ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[11:17]  ⁴ tn Or “be destroyed”; NAB, NIV “will soon perish.”

[11:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 11:4.

[11:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “this commandment.” See note at Deut 5:30.

[11:22]  ⁷ 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.

[11:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV); TEV “do everything he commands.”

[11:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:26]  ¹⁰ 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.

[11:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “listen to,” that is, obey.

[11:28]  ¹² tn Heb “do not listen to,” that is, do not obey.

[11:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “am commanding” (so NASB, NRSV).

[11:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “walk after”; NIV “by following”; NLT “by worshiping.” This is a violation of the first commandment, the most serious of the covenant violations (Deut 5:6-7).

[11:29]  ¹⁶ sn Mount Gerizim…Mount Ebal. These two mountains are near the ancient site of Shechem and the modern city of Nablus. The valley between them is like a great amphitheater with the mountain slopes as seating sections. The place was sacred because it was there that Abraham pitched his camp and built his first altar after coming to Canaan (Gen 12:6). Jacob also settled at Shechem for a time and dug a well from which Jesus once requested a drink of water (Gen 33:18-20; John 4:5-7). When Joshua and the Israelites finally brought Canaan under control they assembled at Shechem as Moses commanded and undertook a ritual of covenant reaffirmation (Josh 8:30-35; 24:1, 25). Half the tribes stood on Mt. Gerizim and half on Mt. Ebal and in antiphonal chorus pledged their loyalty to the Lord before Joshua and the Levites who stood in the valley below (Josh 8:33; cf. Deut 27:11-13).