Deuteronomy 11-12New King James Version (NKJV)
Love and Obedience Rewarded
11 “Therefore you shall love
the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments,
and His commandments always. 2 Know today
that I do not speak with your children, who
have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your
God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— 3 His
signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and to all his land; 4 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; 5 what He did for you
in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 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 in their possession, in the
midst of all Israel— 7 but your eyes have seen
every great act of the Lord which He did.
8 “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, 9 and
that you may prolong your days in the land which
the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants,
‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’[a] 10 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; 11 but the land which
you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys,
which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 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.
13 ‘And it shall be that if you
earnestly 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, 14 then I[b] 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. 15 And
I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be
filled.’ 16 “Take heed to yourselves, lest your
heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship
them, 17 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.
18 “Therefore you shall 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. 19 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. 20 And
you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 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.
22 “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— 23 then
the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you
will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 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 Western Sea,[c] shall be your
territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand 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.
26 “Behold, I set before you today a
blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey
the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you
today; 28 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. 29 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. 30 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? 31 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. 32 And you
shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before
you today.
A Prescribed Place of Worship
12 “These are the statutes and
judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which
the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days
that you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly
destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served
their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green
tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break
their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire;
you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from
that place. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your
God with such things.
5 “But you shall seek the place where
the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name
for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There
you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave
offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the
firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you
shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to
which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which
the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 “You shall not at all do as we are
doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own
eyes— 9 for as yet you have not come to the rest
and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you
cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God
is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round
about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there
will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name
abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your
sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice
offerings which you vow to the Lord. 12 And
you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and
your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within
your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13 Take
heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that
you see; 14 but in the place which
the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your
burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
15 “However, you may slaughter and
eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the
blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and
the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only
you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 17 You
may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your
oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings
which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your
hand. 18 But you must eat them before
the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God
chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female
servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you
shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your
hands. 19 Take heed to yourself that you do not
forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 “When the Lord your God
enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’
because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart
desires. 21 If the place where
the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then
you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which
the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat
within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just
as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the
clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you
do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not
eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat
it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You
shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you,
when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 Only
the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go
to the place which the Lord chooses. 27 And
you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of
the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured
out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the
meat. 28 Observe and obey all these words which I
command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever,
when you do what is good and right in the sight of
the Lord your God.
Beware of False Gods
29 “When the Lord your God
cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you
displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed
to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed
from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did
these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31 You
shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every
abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods;
for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Whatever I command you, be
careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
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