Deuteronomy 11:10

For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Not as the land of Egypt.—“But much better. And Egypt was praised above all lands, as it is said (Genesis 13:10), ‘As the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.’ And the land of Goshen, where Israel dwelt, is called ‘the best of the land of Egypt’ (Genesis 47:6). And even this was not so good as the land of Israel” (Rashi).

Wateredst it with thy foot.—An allusion either to the necessity of carrying the water or to the custom of turning the water into little channels with the foot, as it flowed through the garden.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 11:10. The land is not as the land of Egypt — The fruitfulness of it depends more especially on the divine providence, and therefore you should be careful to serve the Lord, and secure his favour and blessing. Wateredst it with thy foot — That is, with great pains and labour of thy feet; partly by fetching water and dispersing it, and partly by digging furrows, by a spade, with thy foot, and using engines for distributing the water, which engines they wrought with their feet. This is explained by a passage out of Philo, who tells us that the Egyptians, to supply the want of rain, were wont to water their gardens by machines for drawing water, fixed upon the banks of the Nile; which machines were so contrived as to be turned with their feet. So the meaning is, that whereas Egypt was watered by human art, Canaan was watered by rain from heaven, as the next verse explains.

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

Another motive for fidelity is added, namely, the entire dependence of the promised land upon God for its fertility. It was "a land flowing with milk and honey;" yet this its richness was not, as was that of Egypt, the reward of truman skill and labor, but was, on the contrary, the gift of God simply and entirely; the effect of "the former and the latter rains" sent by Him. The spiritual significance of these and many other such peculiarities of the promised land must not be overlooked.

Egypt and Canaan are distinguished in this and the following verses, by certain of their most remarkable physical traits. Canaan as a mountainous country (compare Deuteronomy 3:25 note) was well watered, but by the rains of heaven, on which it absolutely depended for its crops. Artificial irrigation could do nothing to remedy this dependence. Hence, it was a land on which, so long as God's people were faithful and consequently prosperous, "the eyes of God" would always be: i. e., He would supply at each successive season (compare Deuteronomy 11:14-15) the useful conditions of productiveness. But Egypt, fit emblem here as elsewhere of the world of nature in distinction from the world of grace, though of course deriving its all ultimately from the Giver of all good things, yet directly and immediately owed its riches and plenty to human ingenuity and capital. It enjoyed no rain worth speaking of, but drew its water supply from the annum overflowing of the Nile. This only lasts about a hundred days; but is rendered available for agricultural purposes throughout the year by an elaborate and costly system of tanks, canals, forcing machines, etc. To these mechanical appliances allusion is made in Deuteronomy 11:10. The inhabitants of Egypt probably watered "with the foot" in two ways, namely, by means of tread-wheels working sets of pumps, and by means of artificial channels connected with reservoirs, and opened, turned, or closed by the feet. Both methods are still in use in Egypt.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10-12. For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out—The physical features of Palestine present a striking contrast to those of the land of bondage. A widely extending plain forms the cultivated portion of Egypt, and on the greater part of this low and level country rain never falls. This natural want is supplied by the annual overflow of the Nile, and by artificial means from the same source when the river has receded within its customary channel. Close by the bank the process of irrigation is very simple. The cultivator opens a small sluice on the edge of the square bed in which seed has been sown, making drill after drill; and when a sufficient quantity of water has poured in, he shuts it up with his foot. Where the bank is high, the water is drawn up by hydraulic engines, of which there are three kinds used, of different power, according to the subsidence of the stream. The water is distributed in small channels or earthen conduits, simple in construction, worked by the foot, and formed with a mattock by the gardener who directs their course, and which are banked up or opened, as occasion may require, by pressing in the soil with the foot. Thus was the land watered in which the Israelites had dwelt so long. Such vigilance and laborious industry would not be needed in the promised land. Instead of being visited with moisture only at one brief season and left during the rest of the year under a withering blight, every season it would enjoy the benign influences of a genial climate. The hills would attract the frequent clouds, and in the refreshing showers the blessing of God would especially rest upon the land.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. With great pains and labour of thy feet, partly by going up and down to fetch water and disperse it, and partly by digging furrows with thy foot, and using engines for distributing the water, which engines they thrust with their feet. For though the river Nilus did once in a year overflow the grounds, and made them fruitful, yet ofttimes it failed or scanted them, and then they were put to great pains about their ground; and when it did overflow sufficiently, and left its mud upon the earth, yet that mud was in a little time hardened, and needed another watering and much digging and labour both of the hands and feet, especially in places something higher or more remote from that river; which inconvenience Canaan was free from.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the land whither thou goest in to possess it,.... The land of Canaan they were about to take possession of:

is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out; either the whole land of Egypt, or that part of it, Rameses, in which Israel dwelt, and which was the best of it, as Jarchi observes, and yet Canaan exceeded that; though the design of this passage is not so much to set forth the superior excellency and fertility of the land of Canaan to that of Egypt, which was certainly a very fruitful country; see Genesis 13:10 but to observe some things in which they differed, whereby they both became fruitful, and in which Canaan had the advantage:

where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; as a gardener when he has sowed his seed, or planted his plants, waters them that they may grow, by carrying his water pot from bed to bed, which requires much labour and toil. In Egypt rain seldom fell, especially in some places it was very rare, though that there was none at all is a vulgar mistake; See Gill on Zechariah 14:18 (e). To supply the want of it the river Nile overflowed once a year, which not only moistened the earth, but left mud or slime upon it, which made it fruitful; but this was not sufficient, for what through the river not overflowing enough sometimes, and so as to reach some places, and through the heat of the sun hardening the earth again, it was found necessary to cut canals from it, and by water from thence to water it, as a gardener waters his seed and plants; and it is to this watering that respect is here had, not to the overflowing of the Nile, for that was before the seed was sown; but to the watering of it out of the canals, which was done after it was sown; the former was without any trouble of theirs, the latter with much labour; the manner in which it is done is expressed by the phrase "with thy foot", which the Targum explains "by thyself", by their own labour and industry. Jarchi is more particular; "the land of Egypt had need to "have water brought from the Nile with thy foot; he seems to have understood the phrase to signify carrying water on foot from the Nile to the place where it was wanted; but the custom still in use in Egypt, when they water their fields, plantations, or gardens, will give us a clear understanding of this phrase; as a late traveller informs us (f), the water is drawn out of the river (Nile) by instruments, and lodged in capacious cisterns; when plants require to be refreshed, they strike out the plugs that are fixed in the bottoms of the cisterns, and then the water gushing out, is conducted from one rill to another by the gardener, who is always ready as occasion requires to stop and divert the torrent by turning the earth against it "with his foot", and opening at the same time with his mattock a new trench to receive it: and to the same purpose another learned person (g) has observed, that at other times (than the flowing of the Nile) they are obliged to have recourse to art, and to raise the water out of the river and some deep pits by the help of machines, which water is afterwards directed in its course by channels cut in the ground, which convey the water to those places where it is wanted; and when one part of the ground is sufficiently watered, they then stop that channel, by thrusting some earth into the entrance of it "with their foot", and then also "with their foot" open a passage into the next channel, and so on: and Philo the Jew (h) speaks of a machine with which they used to water fields, and was worked with the feet by going up the several steps within, which gave motion to it.

(e) See also Vansleb's Relation of a Voyage to Egypt, p. 213. who speaks of large rains in Egypt. (f) Shaw's Travels, p. 408. (g) Clayton's Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 478. (h) De Confusione Ling p. 325.

Geneva Study Bible

For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy {d} foot, as a garden of herbs:

(d) By making gutters for the water to come out of the Nile river to water the land.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. whither thou goest in to possess it] The Sg. equivalent for the Pl. whither ye are crossing to possess it (Deuteronomy 11:8). Therefore the Pl. reading of Sam. and LXX codd. A etc., ye are going in, is probably not correct. But see next note.

from whence ye came out] This Pl. is confirmed by" the Versions. But with the preceding clause, whither thou goest in, &c., it may be a later addition. Neither is necessary, and indeed both rather break up the comparison which is the writer’s main theme for the time.

where thou sowedst thy seed] This information is novel. We are not told elsewhere that in Egypt Israel practised agriculture for themselves (thy seed). Yet even if they were confined to the land of Goshen (it is only J which affirms this), that land was partly fertile, and even a tribe of shepherds could hardly have refrained from the opportunities which it offered for the richer feeding of their cattle. P’s account of Israel in Egypt says that they multiplied so fast that the land was filled with them; and that when the Egyptians brought them under bondage this included all manner of service in the field (Exodus 1:7; Exodus 1:14).

wateredst it with thy foot] The exact reference is doubtful and has been variously explained: to the working of the shaduf or machine by which a bucket of water is lifted from the river bed to the fields above; to the working of water-wheels; and to the distribution of the water through the fields by many small channels in the soft mud, which was removed by the foot of the peasant to allow the water to pass and replaced to divert it (Manning, The Land of the Pharaohs, 1887, p. 31, cited by Driver, Deuteronomy 3 p. xxi). The use at the shaduf in ancient Egypt is illustrated on the monuments (for an example see Erman, Life in Anc. Egypt, 426); but the employment of the foot in working it, i.e. by pushing or keeping down the weight that balanced the bucket, though recorded, does not seem to be usual. Again, ‘water-wheels cannot be proved to have been known in ancient Egypt’ (W. M. Müller, art. ‘Egypt’ in E.B. col. 1226, n. 1); though Niebuhr saw one worked by the foot in Cairo, and named accordingly (Reisebeschreibung, i. p. 148, pl. xv.), and Robinson saw others in Palestine (B.R. ii. 351, iii. 21). The third explanation, the guidance of water by the foot of the peasant through the fields, seems therefore the most probable (cp. Conder on this method in Palestine, Tent Work in Palestine, 328); though W. M. Müller (loc. cit.) says ‘most probably “watering with the foot” means carrying water.’ (It ought not to be overlooked that the words with thy foot may also have been meant to qualify thou sowedst thy seed; in Egypt, however, it was animals who were employed for tramping the scattered seed into the soft mud, rams (Erman, 429) or pigs (Herodotus, ii. 14, Pliny, H.N. xviii. 47).) But to know the exact meaning of with thy foot is not necessary for the understanding of the writer. He is contrasting the laborious personal labour required in bringing water to the fields of rainless Egypt, which Erman describes even after a high Nile as incessant over a large part of the country, and as an arduous, servile business necessarily enforced upon the peasants by an anxious government, with the heaven’s own direct watering of the Palestine fields without any labour on the part of man. The contrast is, of course, not utter as the deuteronomist in his characteristic style describes it to have been (he himself immediately qualifies it by his reference to the garden of herbs, which in Palestine it was customary to water by channels, cp. Isaiah 1:30). Nevertheless it is in the main true that in Egypt the fields depended for water on human drudgery of the most arduous kind; in Palestine their watering was the direct boon of heaven, beyond man’s responsibility. In this connection Erman’s remarks (14) on the influence of the Egyptian landscape are relevant. The landscape is monotonous, not ‘calculated to awaken the inspiration of the soul; unconsciously the dweller in this country will become sober and prosaic, and his gods will be pale forms with whom he has no sympathy. In fact, the Egyptian peasant could scarcely understand a living personal relationship between the individual and the deity.… Thus the Egyptian grew up under conditions unfavourable to the development of his spiritual life, but such as would fortify his understanding and practical industry.’ And he contrasts the more vivid religious influences which the Greeks experienced from their landscapes—their mountains, forests, meadows and rains. This is virtually the same contrast as the deuteronomist here paints between the flat, rainless Egypt, and Palestine with its rains, hills and vales, and consequent springs. In the latter Israel would more easily feel the personal care of them by God Himself (Deuteronomy 11:12).

as a garden of herbs] 1 Kings 21:2; Proverbs 15:17. The inference is that the irrigation which in Palestine was only applied to special spots was universal in Egypt; see previous note.

10–15. Another picture of the blessings of the land, cp. Deuteronomy 6:10 ff., Deuteronomy 7:12 ff., Deuteronomy 8:7 ff.; all like this in the Sg. form of address. But this time we see the land under a new aspect: its contrast to the flat and rainless Egypt. The section illustrates well both what is obvious and what is obscure in the frequent transition of our Book from the one to the other of the two forms of address. For though it is mainly in the Sg., there are in the present text four interruptions by the Pl.: one in Deuteronomy 11:10 (the Versions add another), one in Deuteronomy 11:11, all Deuteronomy 11:13, and one in Deuteronomy 11:14. The following notes will show that while the last is only an apparent Pl, the Versions supplying a Sg., nearly all the others are clearly editorial expansions.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 10, 11. - An additional motive to fidelity and obedience is here adduced, drawn from the peculiar excellence and advantages of the land. Canaan was not like Egypt, a country that depended for its fertility on being irrigated by man's labor or by artificial processes, but was a land where the supply and distribution of water was provided for in natural reservoirs and channels, by means of which the rain which God, who cared for the land, sent plentifully on it, was made available for useful purposes. In Egypt there is little or no rain, and the people are dependent on the annual overflowing of the Nile for the proper irrigation of their fields; and as this lasts only for a short period, the water has to be stored and redistributed by artificial means, often of a very laborious kind. Wateredst it with thy foot. "The reference, perhaps, is to the manner of conducting the water about from plant to plant and from furrow to furrow. I have often watched the gardener at this fatiguing and unhealthy work. When one place is sufficiently saturated, he pushes aside the sandy soil between it and the next furrow with his foot, and thus continues to do until all are watered. He is thus knee-deep in mud, and many are the diseases generated by this slavish work. Or the reference may be to certain kinds of hydraulic machines which were turned by the feet. I have seen small water-wheels, on the plain of Acre and elsewhere, which were thus worked; and it appeared to me to be very tedious and toilsome, and, if the whole country had to be irrigated by such a process, it would require a nation of slaves like the Hebrews, and taskmasters like the Egyptians, to make it succeed. Whatever may have been the meaning of Moses, the Hebrews no doubt had learned by bitter experience what it was to water with the foot; and this would add great force to the allusion, and render doubly precious the goodly land which drank of the rain of heaven, and required no such drudgery to make it fruitful" (Thomson, ' The Land and the Book,' 2:279; edit. Lend. 1859). Philo describes a machine cf. this sort as in use in Egypt ('De Confus. Linguar.,' Opp. 1:410, edit. Mangey); and in that country, "a garden of herbs" is still generally watered by means of a machine of simple construction, consisting of a wheel, round which revolves an endless rope to which buckets are attached; this is worked by the feet of a man seated on a piece of wood fastened by the side of the machine, labor at once monotonous and severe (Niebuhr, 'Voyage en Arabic,' 1:121, 4to, Amst. 1776; 'Description de l'Arabic,' 1:219, 4to, Paris, 1779; Robinson, 'Bib. lies.,' 1:542; 2:21). Deuteronomy 11:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And this knowledge was to impel them to keep the law, that they might be strong, i.e., spiritually strong (Deuteronomy 1:38), and not only go into the promised land, but also live long therein (cf. Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 6:3). - In Deuteronomy 11:10-12 Moses adduces a fresh motive for his admonition to keep the law with fidelity, founded upon the peculiar nature of the land. Canaan was a land the fertility of which was not dependent, like that of Egypt, upon its being watered by the hand of man, but was kept up by the rain of heaven which was sent down by God the Lord, so that it depended entirely upon the Lord how long its inhabitants should live therein. Egypt is described by Moses as a land which Israel sowed with seed, and watered with its foot like a garden of herbs. In Egypt there is hardly any rain at all (cf. Herod. ii. 4, Diod. Sic. i. 41, and other evidence in Hengstenberg's Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 217ff.). The watering of the land, which produces its fertility, is dependent upon the annual overflowing of the Nile, and, as this only lasts for about 100 days, upon the way in which this is made available for the whole year, namely, by the construction of canals and ponds throughout the land, to which the water is conducted from the Nile by forcing machines, or by actually carrying it in vessels up to the fields and plantations.

(Note: Upon the ancient monuments we find not only the draw-well with the long rope, which is now called Shaduf, depicted in various ways (see Wilkinson, i. p. 35, ii. 4); but at Beni-Hassan there is a representation of two men carrying a water-vessel upon a pole on their shoulders, which they fill from a draw-well or pond, and then carry to the field (cf. Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 220-1).)

The expression, "with thy foot," probably refers to the large pumping wheels still in use there, which are worked by the feet, and over which a long endless rope passes with pails attached, for drawing up the water (cf. Niebuhr, Reise, i. 149), the identity of which with the ἕλιξ described by Philo as ὑδρηλὸν ὄργανον (de confus. ling. i. 410) cannot possibly be called in question; provided, that is to say, we do not confound this ἕλιξ with the Archimedean water-screw mentioned by Diod. Sic. i. 34, and described more minutely at v. 37, the construction of which was entirely different (see my Archaeology, ii. pp. 111-2). - The Egyptians, as genuine heathen, were so thoroughly conscious of this peculiar characteristic of their land, which made its fertility far more dependent upon the labour of human hands than upon the rain of heaven or divine providence, that Herodotus (ii. 13) represents them as saying, "The Greeks, with their dependence upon the gods, might be disappointed in their brightest hopes and suffer dreadfully from famine." The land of Canaan yielded no support to such godless self-exaltation, for it was "a land of mountains and valleys, and drank water of the rain of heaven" (ל before מטר, to denote the external cause; see Ewald, 217, d.); i.e., it received its watering, the main condition of all fertility, from the rain, by the way of the rain, and therefore through the providential care of God.