To awaken this love they were now to know, i.e., to ponder and lay to heart, the discipline of the Lord their God. The words from "for (I speak) not" to "have not seen" are a parenthetical clause, by which Moses would impress his words most strongly upon the hearts of the older generation, which had witnessed the acts of the Lord. The clause is without any verb or predicate, but this can easily be supplied from the sense. The best suggestion is that of Schultz, viz., ההוּא הדּבר, "for it is not with your children that I have to do," not to them that this admonition applies. Moses refers to the children who had been born in the desert, as distinguished from those who, though not twenty years old when the Israelites came out of Egypt, had nevertheless seen with their own eyes the plagues inflicted upon Egypt, and who were now of mature age, viz., between forty and sixty years old, and formed, as the older and more experienced generation, the stock and kernel of the congregation assembled round him now. To the words, "which have not known and have not seen," it is easy to supply from the context, "what ye have known and seen." The accusatives from "the chastisement" onwards belong to the verb of the principal sentence, "know ye this day." The accusatives which follow show what we are to understand by "the chastisement of the Lord," viz., the mighty acts of the Lord to Egypt and to Israel in the desert. The object of them all was to educate Israel in the fear and love of God. In this sense Moses calls them מוּסר (Eng. Ver. chastisement), παιδεία, i.e., not punishment only, but education by the manifestation of love as well as punishment (like יסּר in Deuteronomy 4:36; cf. Proverbs 1:2, Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 4:1, etc.). "His greatness," etc., as in Deuteronomy 3:24 and Deuteronomy 4:34. On the signs and acts in Egypt, see at Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 6:22; and on those at the Red Sea, at Exodus 14. פּניהם - הצּיף אשׁר, "over whose face He made the waters of the Red Sea to flow;" cf. Exodus 14:26. - By the acts of God in the desert (Deuteronomy 11:5) we are not to understand the chastenings in Numbers 11-15 either solely or pre-eminently, but all the manifestations of the omnipotence of God in the guidance of Israel, proofs of love as well as the penal wonders. Of the latter, the miraculous destruction of the company of Korah is specially mentioned in Deuteronomy 11:6 (cf. Numbers 16:31-33). Here Moses only mentions Dathan and Abiram, the followers of Korah, and not Korah himself, probably from regard to his sons, who were not swallowed up by the earth along with their father, but had lived to perpetuate the family of Korah. "Everything existing, which was in their following" (see Exodus 11:8), does not mean their possessions, but their servants, and corresponds to "all the men who belonged to Korah" in Numbers 16:32, whereas the possessions mentioned there are included here in the "tents." היקוּם is only applied to living beings, as in Genesis 7:4 and Genesis 7:23. - In Deuteronomy 11:7 the reason is given for the admonition in Deuteronomy 11:2 : the elders were to know (discern) the educational purpose of God in those mighty acts of the Lord, because they had seen them with their own eyes.

Deuteronomy 11:9 Parallel Commentaries

prolong

Deuteronomy 4:40 You shall keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you...

Deuteronomy 5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged...

Deuteronomy 6:2 That you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son...

Psalm 34:12 What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?

Proverbs 3:2,16 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you...

Proverbs 9:11 For by me your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased.

Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongs days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

sware

Deuteronomy 6:18 And you shall do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with you...

Deuteronomy 9:5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go to possess their land...

a land

Exodus 3:8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and a large...

Ezekiel 20:6 In the day that I lifted up my hand to them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them...