Chapter Eleven

Grateful remembrance of the miracles of God’s goodness shown to Israel, and voluntary fulfillment of the divinely given law, are an indispensable condition for the prosperity of the Hebrew people in the promised land.

Deuteronomy 11:7. for your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord that He has done. Many of the Hebrews, those fifty years of age and older, could clearly remember the circumstances of the people’s departure from Egypt, and all the more the revolt of Korah and his associates (cf. however Deut 2:14).

Deuteronomy 11:10. For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came out, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your feet, like a vegetable garden; The fertility of Egypt depended on the intensive labor of artificial irrigation through canals and channels that drew water from the Nile. Opening and closing the small trenches that watered private plantations was done by a primitive method — with the feet — as is still practiced in some Asian countries.

Deuteronomy 11:11. but the land that you are crossing over to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky — Canaan has abundant natural irrigation through rain, as well as through springs rising in the mountains and flowing through the valleys.

Deuteronomy 11:14. then I will give rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain; and you will gather your grain and your wine and your oil; By the name “early rain” is meant the autumn rain (at the beginning of the Hebrew civil year) needed for the sprouting of seeds; by the name “late rain” — the spring rain, which promotes the filling out of grain and fruit.

Deuteronomy 11:29. When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal: Deuteronomy 11:30. Are they not beyond the Jordan, in the direction of the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oak grove of Moreh? Cf. Deut 27:12-26. Mount Gerizim is considered to be the one on whose slope Shechem (Neapolis, Nablus) was built, situated near the ancient oak grove of Moreh (Gen 12:6). Mount Ebal rises on the northern side of the valley of Shechem. “Opposite Gilgal.” In the opinion of some commentators, the Gilgal mentioned in Deut 11:30 is to be distinguished from the Gilgal mentioned in Josh 4:19-20.