New Living Translation

New King James Version

“You must love the LORD your God and always obey his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands.

Love and Obedience Rewarded

“Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.

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Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the LORD your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm.

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Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the [a]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm —

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They didn’t see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land.

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His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land;

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They didn’t see what the LORD did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots — how he drowned them in the Red Seaa as they were chasing you. He destroyed them, and they have not recovered to this very day!

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what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day;

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“Your children didn’t see how the LORD cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here.

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what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

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They didn’t see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened its mouth in the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them.

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and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was [b]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel —

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But you have seen the LORD perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes!

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but your eyes have seen every great [c]act of the Lord which He did.

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The Blessings of Obedience

“Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter.

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“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess,

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If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants — a land flowing with milk and honey!

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and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord [d]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

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For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden.

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For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;

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Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain —

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but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven,

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a land that the LORD your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!

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a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

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“If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the LORD your God and serve him with all your heart and soul,

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‘And it shall be that if you earnestly [e]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

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then he will send the rains in their proper seasons — the early and late rains — so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.

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then I[f] will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

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He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.

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And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be [g]filled.’

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“But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the LORD and serve and worship other gods.

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Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them,

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If you do, the LORD’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the LORD is giving you.

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lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

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“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.

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“Therefore you shall [h]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

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Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

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You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

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Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

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And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

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so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.

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that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

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“Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the LORD your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.

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“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do — to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him —

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Then the LORD will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land.

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then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.

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Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.b

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Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the [i]Western Sea, shall be your territory.

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No one will be able to stand against you, for the LORD your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.

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No man shall be able to stand [j]against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

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“Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!

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“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

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You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today.

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the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today;

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But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the LORD your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.

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and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

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“When the LORD your God brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.

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Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

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(These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley,c near the town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.)

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Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh?

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For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it,

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For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it.

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you must be careful to obey all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today.

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And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

Parallel

New Living Translation

New King James Version

Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 11