Deuteronomy 11:26-32
The Lord sets blessing and curse before Israel so that entry into the land must be received as covenant accountability, not merely territorial arrival.
26 Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;
28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
29 It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30 Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
31 For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it.
32 You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.
The LORD sets blessing and curse before Israel so that entry into the land must be received as covenant accountability, not merely territorial arrival.
Moses sets before Israel the covenant alternatives of blessing and curse, calling the people to hear and obey the LORD's commands as they enter the land and to mark that covenant accountability publicly on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.
Moses speaks east of the Jordan to the generation about to enter Canaan. After rehearsing the LORD's acts and calling Israel to wholehearted covenant obedience, he now places the whole nation before the public reality of blessing and curse as they prepare to cross into the promised land.
Love, Obedience, and the Land Held by the Rain of Heaven
The first-table expansion closes with the most direct appeal in Deuteronomy: love the LORD and keep his commandments always, not merely today — because the land ahead is not like Egypt's self-irrigating fields but a land the eyes of the LORD watch continually and whose rain depends entirely on whether Israel loves and serves him or turns away to other gods, making the covenant's blessing and curse a matter of life decided each day in the geography of their own hearts.