Deu 11:13-21 | NETfull | STEP | Now, if you pay close attention to my commandments that I am giving you today and love the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being,

Deuteronomy 11:13-21

13 Now, if you pay close attention ^{▼▼ 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.”} to my commandments that I am giving you today and love ^{▼▼ 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).} the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, ^{▼▼ Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.} 14 then he promises, ^{▼▼ 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.} “I will send rain for your land ^{▼▼ Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.} in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, ^{▼▼ 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.} so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil. 15 I will provide pasture ^{▼▼ Heb “grass in your field.”} for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”

Exhortation to Instruction and Obedience

16 Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! ^{▼▼ Heb “Watch yourselves lest your heart turns and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.”} 17 Then the anger of the Lord will erupt ^{▼▼ Heb “will become hot”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “will be kindled”; NAB “will flare up”; NIV, NLT “will burn.”} against you and he will close up the sky ^{▼▼ Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.} so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed ^{▼▼ Or “be destroyed”; NAB, NIV “will soon perish.”} from the good land that the Lord ^{▼▼ Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 11:4.} is about to give you. 18 Fix these words of mine into your mind and being, ^{▼▼ Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.} and tie them as a reminder on your hands and let them be symbols ^{▼▼ On the Hebrew term טוֹטָפֹת (totafot, “reminders”), cf. Deut 6:4–9.} on your forehead. 19 Teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, ^{▼▼ Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”} as you lie down, and as you get up. 20 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates 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. ^{▼▼ Heb “like the days of the heavens upon the earth,” that is, forever.}