Deuteronomy 11:16

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Take heed to yourselves—i.e., when you are satisfied. (Comp. Deuteronomy 8:10-11.)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 11:16-17. That your heart be not deceived — By the specious pretence of idolaters, persuading you that they enjoy fruitful seasons, and other temporal blessings, as a reward for their worship. And he shut up the heaven — Withhold rain from you, which will be a sore judgment, quickly bringing a famine, whereby you will be wasted and consumed. Here, and elsewhere, heaven is compared to a great store-house, wherein God lays up his treasures of dew and rain, (Job 38:22,) the doors whereof God is said to open when he gives rain, and to shut when he withholds it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:8-17 Moses sets before them, for the future, life and death, the blessing and the curse, according as they did or did not keep God's commandment. Sin tends to shorten the days of all men, and to shorten the days of a people's prosperity. God will bless them with an abundance of all good things, if they would love him and serve him. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil. Revolt from God to idols would certainly be their ruin. Take heed that your hearts be not deceived. All who forsake God to set their affection upon any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived, to their own destruction; and this will make it worse, that it was for want of taking heed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The first rain and the latter rain - The former is the proper term for the autumn rain, falling about the time of sowing, and which may be named "the former," as occurring in the early part of the Hebrew civil year, namely, in October and November. The other word is applied to the spring rain, which falls in March and April, because it fits the earth for the ingathering of harvest. Between these two wet periods, and except them, there was little or no rain in Canaan.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15-17. I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle—Undoubtedly the special blessing of the former and the latter rain [De 11:14] was one principal cause of the extraordinary fertility of Canaan in ancient times. That blessing was promised to the Israelites as a temporal reward for their fidelity to the national covenant [De 11:13]. It was threatened to be withdrawn on their disobedience or apostasy; and most signally is the execution of that threatening seen in the present sterility of Palestine. MR. LowthIAN, an English farmer, who was struck during his journey from Joppa to Jerusalem by not seeing a blade of grass, where even in the poorest localities of Britain some wild vegetation is found, directed his attention particularly to the subject, and pursued the inquiry during a month's residence in Jerusalem, where he learned that a miserably small quantity of milk is daily sold to the inhabitants at a dear rate, and that chiefly asses' milk. "Most clearly," says he, "did I perceive that the barrenness of large portions of the country was owing to the cessation of the early and latter rain, and that the absence of grass and flowers made it no longer the land (De 11:9) flowing with milk and honey."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That your heart be not deceived by the specious pretenses of idolaters, who will plead the general consent of all nations, except yours, in the worship of creatures, and that they worship the creatures only for God’s sake, and as they are glorious works of God, whom they worship in and by them; which, and the like arguments, being commonly alleged by heathens for their idolatries, as their own writers declare, might possibly seduce an unwary Israelite; and therefore they are here cautioned against such deceit, and withal it is implied, that if a man’s mind be corrupted and deceived, so as he believes idolatry to be lawful, this will not excuse him in the sight of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived,.... By observing the influence of the heavens upon the fruitfulness of the earth, and so be drawn to the worship of the host of them, the sun, moon, and stars; or by the examples of nations round about them; and by the plausible arguments they may make use of, taken from the traditions of ancestors, from antiquity, and the consent of nations, and the great numbers of worshippers, and the like:

and ye turn aside; from the true God, and the worship of him; or from the law, as Jarchi, which directs to the worship of one God, and forbids idolatry, or the worshipping of images:

and serve other gods, and worship them; other gods than the one only living and true God; gods that made not the heavens and the earth, and which cannot give rain, nor any blessing and mercy of life, nor help and deliver their worshippers when in distress.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(f) By devising foolish devotions according to your own fantasies.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16, 17. The enjoyment of so much blessing in the land suggests, as usual (cp. Deuteronomy 6:14 f., Deuteronomy 8:19 f.), a warning against being deceived into attributing it to other gods, i.e. the Baalim, already regarded in the land as the authors of its fertility, and worshipping them. Whether this warning is from the same hand as the preceding vv. is difficult to determine. The fact that it is in the Pl. while they are in the Sg., and that it is not so necessary to their argument as it is to the context in Deuteronomy 6:14 f. and Deuteronomy 8:19 f., suggests here another hand. At the same time it is relevant to what precedes, and in Deuteronomy 11:17 directly attaches itself to that. Nor is it all compiled of formulas.

16. Take heed to yourselves] See on Deuteronomy 4:9; only here and Deuteronomy 4:23 with Pl.

lest your heart be deceived] So Job 31:27.

and ye turn aside] With both Sg. and Pl., see on Deuteronomy 13:5.

17. the anger of the Lord, etc.] See Deuteronomy 6:14 f., Deuteronomy 7:4.

and he shut up the heaven … fruit] These clauses found in D only here (but cp. Deuteronomy 28:23 f. and the deuteronomic 1 Kings 8:35). Fruit, rather produce, yebûl, found, save for Jdg 6:4, only in the later O.T. writings from Ezekiel (Ezekiel 34:27) and D onwards, cp. Deuteronomy 32:22. Thus not only in the climate of Palestine, blessed directly from heaven, but in its interruptions also Israel are to see the personal Providence of their God.

and ye perish quickly, etc.] So, with slight variations, Deuteronomy 4:26.

the good land] Deuteronomy 1:35.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - That your heart be not deceived; literally, lest your heart be enticed or seduced (יִפְתָה). The verb means primarily to be open, and as a mind open to impressions from without is easily persuaded, moved either to good or evil, the word came to signify to induce in a good sense, or to seduce in a bad sense. Here the people are cautioned against allowing themselves to be enticed so as to be led astray by seductive representations (cf. Job 31:27; Proverbs 20:19 ["flattereth"]; Job 5:2 ["silly one"]; Hosea 7:11). Deuteronomy 11:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

But if, on the other hand, their heart was foolish to turn away from the Lord and serve other gods, the wrath of the Lord would burn against them, and God would shut up the heaven, that no rain should fall and the earth should yield no produce, and they would speedily perish (cf. Leviticus 26:19-20, and Deuteronomy 28:23-24). Let them therefore impress the words now set before them very deeply upon themselves and their children (Deuteronomy 11:18-21, in which there is in part a verbal repetition of Deuteronomy 6:6-9). The words, "as the days of the heaven above the earth," i.e., as long as the heaven continues above the earth, - in other words, to all eternity (cf. Psalm 89:30; Job. Deu 14:12), - belong to the main sentence, "that your days may be multiplied," etc. (Deuteronomy 11:21). "The promise to give the land to Israel for ever was not made unconditionally; an unconditional promise is precluded by the words, 'that your days may be multiplied'" (Schultz). (For further remarks, see at Deuteronomy 30:3-5.) For (Deuteronomy 11:22-25) if they adhered faithfully to the Lord, He would drive out before them all the nations that dwelt in the land, and would give them the land upon which they trod in all its length and breadth, and so fill the Canaanites with fear and terror before them, that no one should be able to stand against them. (On Deuteronomy 11:23, cf. Deuteronomy 7:1-2; Deuteronomy 9:1, and Deuteronomy 1:28.) The words, "every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours," are defined more precisely, and restricted to the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan by the boundaries which follow: "from the desert (of Arabia on the south), and Lebanon (on the north), and from the river Euphrates (on the east) to the hinder sea" (the Mediterranean on the west; see Numbers 34:6). The Euphrates is given as the eastern boundary, as in Deuteronomy 1:7, according to the promise in Genesis 15:18. (On Deuteronomy 11:25, cf. Deuteronomy 7:24; Deuteronomy 2:25, and Exodus 23:27.)