Deuteronomy 11 Footnotes

11:6 History records many instances of chasms opening up in the surface of the earth as a result of earthquakes, floods, or other natural disasters. That such a thing could occur in the Sinai in Moses’s time is not beyond belief. But the timing and precise location of the event are what is significant in the biblical record. If one believes in the God of the Bible, there is nothing inherently problematic about the incident recorded of Dathan and Abiram (Nm 16:31-33).

11:9 Anyone who has traveled to the Holy Land might take issue with the description of it as “flowing with milk and honey,” but that response overlooks the land’s complete agricultural history. The term is a stock phrase that combines products derived from agriculture (milk) and those that are natural, that is, obtained apart from human labor (honey). As such, it illustrates the land’s fruitfulness. Compared to the arid and bare deserts of the Sinai, Canaan was a virtual Eden. Archaeological research has revealed that the region was more cultivated and forested in ancient times than in recent centuries, due to elaborate systems of water retention and irrigation. Under Turkish occupation the land was stripped for lumber and became more arid, but reforestation by the Israelis has brought back much of the country’s original character.

11:26 The curse in view here is certainly not the use of profanity or anything of the kind but is the technical language of covenant relationship. Blessing comes by obedience, and cursing by disobedience. Disobedience resulted in such things as illness, lack of rain, loss of harvest, deportation, or even death. Curses are not arbitrary and capricious acts of God but the penalty for violating a pledge made by the people themselves (see 28:1-68; Ex 19:8; 24:3,7).