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Rewards for Obedience

You shall love the L ord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always. ²Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the L ord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ³his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, so that the L ord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; ⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company; ⁷for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the L ord did.

⁸ Keep, then, this entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy, ⁹and so that you may live long in the land that the L ord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, ¹²a land that the L ord your God looks after. The eyes of the L ord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today—loving the L ord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul— ¹⁴then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; ¹⁵and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. ¹⁶Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them, ¹⁷for then the anger of the L ord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the L ord is giving you.

¹⁸ You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. ¹⁹Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the L ord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²² If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the L ord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, ²³then the L ord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than yourselves. ²⁴Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the Western Sea. ²⁵No one will be able to stand against you; the L ord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you.

²⁶ See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the L ord your God that I am commanding you today; ²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the L ord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.

²⁹ When the L ord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh.

³¹ When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the L ord your God is giving you, and when you occupy it and live in it, ³²you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

26. Behold, I set before you this day. He now embraces the two points at once, viz., that they would be blessed if they earnestly apply themselves to the keeping of the Law, and cursed, if they shake off its yoke and revel in their lusts. But, when he says that he here sets before them a blessing and a curse, it is as much as to declare, that he does not merely tell them what is right, but that the reward is prepared if they obey; and if not, that the punishment is also at hand. Thus we see, that the doctrine which he had hitherto delivered is sealed by hope and fear, since they would not lose their labor if they obeyed it, nor be unpunished if they rejected it. But, that they may learn surely to embrace the promises and to fear the threatenings, he repeats what we have met with before, ²⁰³²⁰³ Added in Fr., “Plusieurs fois.” that God, who is both a faithful rewarder, and a severe judge, is the Author of the Law; yet at the same time he magnifies his own ministry, ²⁰⁴²⁰⁴ Added in Fr., “Disant que c’est luy qui commande apres Dieu;” saying that it is he who commands after God. since it behooved them to depend upon God, and to acquiesce in His commandments, in such a manner as still to submit themselves to His Prophet. For such is men’s pride, that they desire to fly above the clouds to listen to God; whilst He would be heard in His servants, by whose mouth He speaks. Moses, therefore, would again enforce upon them this humility, when he states that he enjoins what God has commanded, as if to call himself the organ of the Holy Spirit.

29. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord. I have lately expounded a similar passage, which, although it is subsequent in the order observed by Moses, yet, inasmuch as it sets out the matter more clearly, I have not hesitated for perspicuity’s sake to put first. I said that God’s intention was, whilst appointing the Israelites to proclaim their own condemnation, to lay them under more solemn obligation to keep the Law. If He had Himself declared His will through the Levites only, they ought indeed to have been seriously affected, and to have listened with reverence both to the blessings and the curses; but when each of them testifies with his own mouth what the Levites dictated by God’s command, the introduction of this assent, as a solemn ratification, ²⁰⁵²⁰⁵ The Latin word used by C. is a legal one, ratihabitio, explained by Du Cange by “confirmatio, occurring more than once in the Digest, and in more modern writers.” — Adelung’s Gloss. Man., in voce. was more efficacious in awakening their zeal and attention. A more fitting season, however, for this protest was after they had entered the promised land than as if it had been made in the plain of Moab; for the sight of the land tended to its confirmation, as if they had been brought into court to make a covenant with God.

These ²⁰⁶²⁰⁶ “Ebal and Gerizim are two closely adjoining mountains, separated by a narrow valley, about a furlong in breadth, in which stands the town of Naplous, the ancient Shechem. This beautiful valley, covered with olive woods and corn fields, has Mount Gerizim on the south, and Mount Ebal on the north. The two mountains are, according to Buckingham, nearly equal in altitude, neither of them exceeding seven or eight hundred feet above the level of the valley, but much more above the level of the sea, as the whole country here is considerably elevated.” — Illustrated Comment on Deuteronomy 27:4. two mountains are situated opposite to each other, in such a manner that the two divisions of the people might easily stand to bless and to curse, so that they might in concert approve of the promises and threats of God.

30. Are they not on the other side of Jordan. Although the form of interrogation is common in Hebrew, yet in this place Moses affirms more vehemently than as if he had only stated directly that these mountains were in the land of Canaan; for he wishes to encourage them in the confidence of entering the promised inheritance; just as he adds immediately afterwards, “Ye shall pass over Jordan.” For, although they had already experienced the miraculous power of God in the conquest of the Amorites, and in heir occupation of the land of Bashan, yet such was their incredulity, that it was necessary constantly to dissipate their fears, so that they might lay aside all hesitation, and boldly prepare to advance. Finally, he founds an exhortation upon this great goodness of God; for the actual enjoyment of the land ought to have stimulated them the more in the service of God, because they were made to inherit it for the purpose of keeping the Law.

²⁰³ Added in Fr., “Plusieurs fois.”

²⁰⁴ Added in Fr., “Disant que c’est luy qui commande apres Dieu;” saying that it is he who commands after God.

²⁰⁵ The Latin word used by C. is a legal one, ratihabitio, explained by Du Cange by “confirmatio, occurring more than once in the Digest, and in more modern writers.” — Adelung’s Gloss. Man., in voce.

²⁰⁶ “Ebal and Gerizim are two closely adjoining mountains, separated by a narrow valley, about a furlong in breadth, in which stands the town of Naplous, the ancient Shechem. This beautiful valley, covered with olive woods and corn fields, has Mount Gerizim on the south, and Mount Ebal on the north. The two mountains are, according to Buckingham, nearly equal in altitude, neither of them exceeding seven or eight hundred feet above the level of the valley, but much more above the level of the sea, as the whole country here is considerably elevated.” — Illustrated Comment on Deuteronomy 27:4.