Deuteronomy 11 Summary and Study Guide

In Egypt a farmer watered his field with his feet. In the land Israel was about to enter nobody could do that, because it drank rain straight from the sky. This Deuteronomy 11 summary and study guide covers the chapter that ties the weather to worship and then puts the whole choice on two hills.

Setting the Stage

God swore a land to Abraham’s descendants long before there was a nation to give it to (Genesis 15:18). He brought their children out of Egypt to hand it over, and at the border they refused to go in. God told that generation they would die in the wilderness instead, and the sentence fell on the men numbered from twenty years old and upward who had murmured against Him (Numbers 14:29).

Forty years later the survivors of that camp and the children they raised are standing east of the Jordan with the same land in front of them. Everything Moses says from Deuteronomy 6 through to this chapter is aimed at one thing: that this generation would not lose the land the way the last one did.

Comprehensive Deuteronomy 11 Summary

Moses has just reminded Israel that God turned seventy people into a nation as numerous as the stars, and he draws his command straight from it: love the LORD and keep His commandments always. Then he turns to the adults.

He is not speaking to their children, he says, but to the people who saw it themselves: the plagues in Egypt, the Red Sea closing over Pharaoh’s chariots, forty years in the desert, and the ground opening under Dathan and Abiram. Because their own eyes have seen all this, they are to obey, so that they will be strong enough to take the land and stay in it.

The land itself is his next argument. Egypt was flat and had to be irrigated by hand. Canaan is hills and valleys, and it drinks water from the rain of heaven. God cares for that land, and His eyes are on it from the start of the year to the end of it. So the promise and the threat both come through the sky.

If they listen and serve Him, He will send the first and the latter rain, and they will gather corn, wine, oil and pasture for their cattle. If their hearts are enticed to other gods, He will shut the heaven, and they will perish quickly off the good land.

Therefore, Moses says, lay up these words in your heart, bind them on your hand and between your eyes, teach them to your children while you sit, walk, lie down and rise up, and write them on your doorposts.

Cleave to God, and He will drive out nations greater than Israel and give them every place their feet tread, as far as the Euphrates. He closes by setting two outcomes in front of them, one to be called out over the nation from each of two hills once they cross the river.

One Word Summary

• Therefore: the chapter’s own hinge word, used three times.
• Rain: the sky becomes the test of the covenant.
• Choice: the chapter ends by making Israel pick.
• Watched: God’s eyes on the land every day of the year.

In One Sentence

Moses tells the Israelites who saw Egypt and the wilderness to love and obey God as they enter a land that drinks rain from heaven, warns that turning to other gods will shut the sky over them, and sets a blessing and a curse before them to be proclaimed from Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.

Theme of Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 11 is about a love for God that has to be lived out where other people can see it, in a land where nothing grows unless He sends the rain. Memory feeds that love, dependence protects it, and Moses locates its enemy inside a person rather than outside, since the heart is enticed before any idol is served.

The same obedience that brings the rain is what clears the land ahead of them, and the closing scene gives the whole thing an edge: two hills, a blessing on one and a curse on the other, and nowhere in between to stand.

Deuteronomy 11 Outline

• Deuteronomy 11:1: Moses commands Israel to love the LORD and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments and His commandments always.
• Deuteronomy 11:2-4: He tells the adults that he is not speaking to their children, and names what they saw God do to Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to the army drowned in the Red Sea.
• Deuteronomy 11:5-7: He adds what God did in the wilderness, including the earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram, and says their own eyes have seen all of it.
• Deuteronomy 11:8-9: He tells them to keep every commandment so that they will be strong to possess the land and live long in a country flowing with milk and honey.
• Deuteronomy 11:10-12: He contrasts Egypt, watered by hand, with Canaan, a land of hills and valleys that drinks rain from heaven and stays under God’s eye all year.
• Deuteronomy 11:13-15: God promises the first and the latter rain, with grain, wine, oil and pasture, if Israel listens and serves Him with all their heart and soul.
• Deuteronomy 11:16-17: God warns that a heart enticed to other gods will bring His anger, a shut heaven, no rain, and a quick end in the land.
• Deuteronomy 11:18-21: Moses commands them to fix these words on heart, hand and eyes, teach them to their children through the whole day, and write them on their doorposts and gates.
• Deuteronomy 11:22-25: He promises that obedience will drive out greater nations and give Israel every place their feet tread, with no man able to stand before them.
• Deuteronomy 11:26-28: He sets a blessing before them for obedience and a curse for turning aside to gods they have not known.
• Deuteronomy 11:29-30: He tells them to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal, beyond Jordan by the plains of Moreh.
• Deuteronomy 11:31-32: He says they will cross the Jordan, possess the land, dwell in it, and observe all the statutes and judgments he has set before them.

The Blessing and the Curse

Moses ends with a covenant provision rather than a plea. It has parties, terms, a location and a date, and Israel carried it out years later exactly as written.

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”

Deuteronomy 11:26-28

Obey and you are blessed; refuse and go after gods you have never met, and you are cursed.

The Terms of the Ceremony at Gerizim and Ebal

Scholars of ancient treaty documents note the shape of a second millennium covenant between a great king and a lesser one, in which a king near the end of his life has his people swear loyalty to his successor. Moses is weeks from death, and Joshua is the one who reads these words out on those hills.

Observations from Deuteronomy 11

Three “Therefores” Carry the Whole Chapter (Verses 1, 8, 18)

Moses never simply asserts. He gives evidence and then draws a command from it. God multiplied seventy people into a nation, therefore love Him (11:1). Your own eyes saw what He did, therefore keep His commandments (11:8). A wandering heart will shut the sky over your fields, therefore lay these words up in your heart (11:18). Israel is being reasoned with, not ordered around, and every reason is something that already happened to them.

The Promise and the Threat Use the Same Sky (Verses 14, 17)

God says He will “give you the rain of your land in his due season” if they obey (11:14), and that He will “shut up the heaven, that there be no rain” if they turn aside (11:17). The blessing and the judgment are not two different things. They are the same weather, given or withheld, over the same fields, by the same God, which makes a farmer’s harvest a matter of worship rather than luck.

The promise may also have had a rival in view. Baal was widely worshipped in Canaan as the god who brought the storms, so a promise of rain from the LORD landed on ground Baal was credited with. Centuries later Elijah told Ahab there would be neither dew nor rain except at his word, and there was not (1 Kings 17:1).

Eyes, Three Times, Doing Three Different Things (Verses 7, 12, 18)

“Your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did” (11:7). “The eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it” (11:12). And His words are to be “as frontlets between your eyes” (11:18). What Israel saw, what watches Israel, and what Israel must keep in view. Three uses of one word, and together they hold the chapter’s argument: remember, be watched, and look at this every day.

Feet in Egypt and Feet in Canaan (Verses 10, 24)

In Egypt they “wateredst it with thy foot” (11:10), which was labour that bought water a channel at a time. In Canaan, “every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours” (11:24). The same word for the same body part marks the difference between the two countries. In one their feet worked for what they got. In the other their feet only had to arrive.

The Men Who Called Egypt the Good Land (Verses 6, 10)

Moses names Dathan and Abiram in verse 6, and four verses later he begins explaining why Canaan is better than Egypt. When those two rebelled, their complaint was that Moses had “brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness” (Numbers 16:13).

They meant Egypt. Moses does not say he has that in mind, but the order of his own words is striking: he names the two men, and then he describes what Egypt actually was, a place where you planted a crop and then carried the water to it yourself, field by field.

Difficult Verses Explained

How Could Moses Say “Your Eyes Have Seen” to a Generation That Died in the Wilderness?

Because the wilderness sentence was narrower than it is usually remembered. Numbers 14:29 restricts it to those “numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me.”

Women were not under it, the tribe of Levi was not under it, and neither was anyone who had been a child or a teenager when Israel left Egypt. Those people were now between forty and sixty years old and formed the backbone of the congregation in front of Moses. Thousands of them had watched the plagues and the Red Sea, which is what he says in 11:2-7.

What Does “Wateredst It with Thy Foot” Mean?

Nobody is certain, and there are three reasonable readings. It may describe a foot driven lifting wheel that raises water from the Nile, attested in later Egyptian practice. It may describe opening and closing irrigation channels by pushing soil aside with the foot, which travellers have watched farmers in the region do.

Or it may simply mean irrigation by your own labour, since the Hebrew idiom behind it is the one rendered “in their possession” in 11:6, literally what was under their feet. Commentators note there is no archaeological evidence from Moses’ own period of a foot operated machine, so the broadest reading is the safest: in Egypt you got water by working for it.

Did Israel Ever Hold the Land from the Wilderness to the Euphrates?

Israel came closest under Solomon, who “reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt” (1 Kings 4:21), and even that was tribute from surrounding kings rather than settled possession of every mile. The promise traces back to what God swore to Abram in Genesis 15:18, and He repeated the same words about the sole of the foot to Joshua before the crossing (Joshua 1:3).

But 11:22 attaches a condition before the promise is even made: this happens if Israel keeps the commandments, loves God, walks in His ways and cleaves to Him. Israel’s borders shrank in the centuries that followed, and 2 Kings 17:7-23 ties that loss to their turning to other gods, which is the outcome this chapter warns about.

Common Misunderstandings

• That Moses is addressing the generation born in the wilderness. He says the opposite in 11:2, and the argument of 11:2-7 depends on the difference. Several popular summaries of this chapter get the audience backwards.
• That the land Moses describes lies east of the Jordan. It lies west. Israel is standing east of the river, and 11:31 says they still have to cross over to reach it.
• That Gerizim is fertile and Ebal barren, and that this is why each hill got what it got. Commentators have said so for centuries. Others who have stood in the valley report both slopes looking equally bare, and suggest Gerizim carried the blessing because it lies to the south, toward the light. Scripture gives no reason at all, so the text leaves the question open.
• That the promise of rain in 11:14 is a personal guarantee. It is national covenant language addressed to Israel about the land of Canaan, and it comes bolted to the matching threat in 11:17. Reading the promise on its own quietly drops the warning.

Christ Connection

Centuries after Moses assigned the blessing to Mount Gerizim, a Samaritan woman drew water from Jacob’s well at the foot of that mountain, and when the talk turned to God she pointed up at it: “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship” (John 4:20).

Jesus told her the hour was coming when the Father would be worshipped in neither place, “but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). The hour had come because He was sitting in front of her. The blessing Israel once had to travel to a hill to hear is no longer tied to any hill at all.

The other mountain is answered just as directly. Paul quotes the curse Israel was to proclaim from Ebal in Galatians 3:10 and does not soften it: everyone who fails to continue in all the things written in the law is under it, which means everyone. Then he says what happened to it.

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:13-14).

Christ took the curse of one hill so that the blessing of the other could reach people who were never at either. Deuteronomy 11 hands a nation two mountains and asks which one they will live under. The gospel answers that the curse has already fallen, and where.

When, Where, and Why

• When: In the fortieth year after the exodus, in the last weeks of Moses’ life (Deuteronomy 1:3), conventionally placed around 1406 BC, though the date is debated.
• Where: On the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, with the whole chapter facing west across the river. The two hills it names, Gerizim and Ebal, face each other across the narrow valley in the central hill country where Shechem stood, well to the north of where Jerusalem would later be. That valley is where Abraham built his first altar in the land, by the oaks of Moreh (Genesis 12:6-7), which is likely why Moses chose that spot.
• Why: This chapter closes the long appeal that began in Deuteronomy 6 and opens the law code that begins in Deuteronomy 12:1, where the statutes Moses has been promising finally start. He is making sure the second generation carries into Canaan the one thing the first generation lost: a love for God that shows up in obedience.

Key Verses

“A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”

Deuteronomy 11:12

God does not merely permit this land to be fruitful, He attends to it, and He never looks away for a season. The Hebrew word behind “careth for” means to seek after or inquire about, which is the language of someone checking on something they love. This is why the comparison with Egypt exists at all: Israel is moving from a country they could manage to a country God keeps.

“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

Store these words inside you, keep them where your hands and eyes are, and talk about them at home and on the road through the whole ordinary day. This is Moses’ answer to the question the chapter raises and never states: how does a covenant survive the death of everyone who saw the miracles? Not by monuments. By parents talking.

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.”

Deuteronomy 11:26

Moses puts both outcomes in front of the nation on the same day and lets them look at them together. He offers no neutral option, which is the point: the choice is not between following God and doing nothing, but between two futures that both arrive.

Key Lessons from Deuteronomy 11

• Obedience is built on what God has actually done, and Moses argues from what this generation watched with their own eyes rather than from what they had been told (11:7).
• A place you cannot water by working harder keeps you looking up, which is why God gave Israel hills and rain instead of a river (11:11-12).
• The heart turns before the hands do, so Moses warns against being enticed inwardly long before anyone bows to an idol (11:16).
• Faith is handed to the next generation through ordinary conversation rather than through occasional ceremonies (11:19).
• God’s promises can carry conditions, and the border promise of the Euphrates arrives with an “if” attached to it (11:22-24).
• A covenant can carry an outcome you did not ask for, since Moses hands Israel both a blessing and a curse on the same day (11:26).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Deuteronomy 11.

Bible Study Questions

1. What four things does Moses list in verses 3 to 6 as evidence that this generation had seen God act?
2. Why does Moses contrast Egypt’s irrigation with Canaan’s rainfall in verses 10 to 12 instead of simply saying the land is good?
3. What does verse 12 claim about God’s attention to the land, and what would change for a farmer who believed it?
4. Verse 16 says the heart is enticed first. What does that suggest about where idolatry actually begins?
5. Of the four moments named in verse 19, which is hardest for you to fill with God’s word in an ordinary week, and why?
6. Verse 22 places a condition on the promise in verses 23 to 25. How should that shape the way we read God’s promises about safety or provision?
7. Verses 26 to 28 put two outcomes in front of Israel on one day. What made the choice hard for people who had watched God part a sea?
8. What does the Christ Connection between Mount Gerizim and John 4 change about where and how you worship?

Frequently Asked Questions

Deuteronomy 11, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

2 And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,

3 And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;

4 And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;

5 And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;

6 And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:

7 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.

8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;

9 And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:

11 But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

17 And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:

21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;

23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.

25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.

26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:

28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

29 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.

30 Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?

31 For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.

32 And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.