Deuteronomy 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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, delivering a covenant warning that directly follows the prohibition against idolatry (Deut 11:16) and precedes the command to internalize the law (Deut 11:18).

The words — The text uses חָרָה (cha.Rah, "it will burn") and עָצַר ('a.Tzar, "he will shut up") to describe Yahweh’s anger and the deliberate closure of the heavens.

The thread — This pattern of shut skies and withheld rain due to covenant unfaithfulness recurs in 1 Kings 8:35 and 2 Chronicles 6:26, while the warning of divine jealousy and kindled anger echoes Deuteronomy 6:15.

Why it lands — The verse states that disobedience triggers divine judgment through agricultural collapse and displacement from the promised land, demanding immediate obedience to avoid losing the inheritance.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.

Cross-references

1 Kings 8:35 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
Deuteronomy 6:15 For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.
2 Chronicles 6:26 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
Amos 4:7 “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.
1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
Deuteronomy 4:26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
Deuteronomy 8:19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.
Deuteronomy 28:23 The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
Deuteronomy 30:17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
2 Chronicles 7:13 If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,