# What the LORD asks Deuteronomy · Draft · BSB Content revision: 91f5543b902e0777 · No editorial review date recorded [Citation / readable page](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/studies/deuteronomy/what-the-lord-asks/) [Open interactive map](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?study=deuteronomy§ion=what-the-lord-asks) [Markdown](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/studies/deuteronomy/what-the-lord-asks/index.md) [JSON](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/studies/deuteronomy/what-the-lord-asks/index.json) Date: c. 1406 BC · Year 40, month 11 (Deuteronomy 1:3). Dated from 1 Kings 6:1 (the Exodus c. 1446 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC, placing these speeches about 1220 BC. What does the LORD ask? To fear him, walk in his ways, love and serve him with all their heart, and keep his commands. The God of gods loves the foreigner, so Israel must too, for they were foreigners in Egypt. Moses recalls what their own eyes saw in Egypt, at the sea and in the wilderness, and sets before them a blessing and a curse, to be proclaimed on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Deuteronomy records Moses’ last speeches to the new generation of Israel on the plains of Moab, in the fortieth year after the Exodus (1:3). It looks back over the journey from Egypt and Horeb and forward to life in the land, calling Israel to love the LORD and remember what he has done. Each section below lists what Moses recalls, with links to those events on the timeline, and where the rest of Scripture takes up the passage. The Ten Commandments, the great commandment, and the statutes for life in the land, ending with blessings and curses (4:44–28:68). ## Primary Scripture [Deuteronomy 10:12–11:32 (BSB)](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2010%3A12%E2%80%9311%3A32&version=BSB) 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 10:13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good? 10:14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it. 10:15 Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day. 10:16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more. 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. 10:18 He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 10:19 So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 10:20 You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. 10:21 He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen. 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11:1 You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. 11:2 Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm; 11:3 the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; 11:4 what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day; 11:5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place; 11:6 and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them. 11:7 For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done. 11:8 You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 11:9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 11:10 For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden. 11:11 But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven. 11:12 It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year. 11:13 So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 11:14 then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil. 11:15 And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. 11:16 But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods, 11:17 or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you. 11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 11:19 Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 11:20 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, 11:21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 11:22 For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 11:23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. 11:24 Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea. 11:25 No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you. 11:26 See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— 11:27 a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, 11:28 but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 11:29 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 11:30 Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh? 11:31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it, 11:32 be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today. ## Moses looks back [Deuteronomy 10:22](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2010%3A22&version=BSB) Seventy went down to Egypt. [Jacob goes down to Egypt](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/jacob-goes-to-egypt/) [Deuteronomy 11:3](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2011%3A3&version=BSB) Signs and deeds in Egypt. [The plagues on Egypt](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/the-plagues/) [Deuteronomy 11:4](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2011%3A4&version=BSB) The Egyptian army drowned in the Red Sea. [A way through the sea](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/sea/) [Deuteronomy 11:6](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2011%3A6&version=BSB) Dathan and Abiram swallowed by the earth. [Korah’s rebellion](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/korah/) ## Where Scripture takes it up [Micah 6:8](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Micah%206%3A8&version=BSB) Micah asks what the LORD requires. [Romans 2:28–29](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%202%3A28%E2%80%9329&version=BSB) Circumcision of the heart. [Joshua 8:30–35](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%208%3A30%E2%80%9335&version=BSB) Joshua reads the blessings and curses at Ebal and Gerizim. [The law read before all Israel](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/law-at-ebal/) ## Location evidence Plains of Moab: Approximate region. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.64, 31.85\]. Classification source: editorial. Illustrative regional extent: \[\[35.56,31.77\],\[35.7,31.91\]\]; not a measured confidence interval. [Numbers 33:48–49 · extent of the camp](https://ebible.org/eng-web/NUM33.htm) ## For the class Moses asks what the LORD your God asks of you. How would you answer from this passage? ## Interpretation and reuse Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review. Record source: editorial Study guide: original editorial writing for Scripture Atlas. Place coordinates: OpenBible.info, CC BY 4.0. Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm [Use this atlas with AI / data documentation](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/ai/)