Deuteronomy 8:1-9:23

New King James Version

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(A)you must ^[a]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(B)multiply,^[b] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[c]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(C)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(D)test you, ^(E)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(F)allowed you to hunger, and ^(G)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(H)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (I)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (J)You should ^[d]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(K)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(L)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (M)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (N)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[e]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[f]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (O)when your heart ^[g]is lifted up, and you ^(P)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(Q)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(R)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(S)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(T)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(U)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(V)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(W)that He may ^[h]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(X)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(Y)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed^(Z)

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the ^(AA)descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who ^(AB)goes over before you as a ^(AC)consuming fire. ^(AD)He will destroy them and bring them down before you; ^(AE)so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

^4 (AF)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(AG)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ^5 (AH)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[i]fulfill the ^(AI)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a ^(AJ)stiff-necked^[j] people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you ^(AK)provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(AL)From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also ^(AM)in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ^9 (AN)When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and ^(AO)forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ^10 (AP)Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(AQ)in^[k] the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ^(AR)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have ^(AS)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’

¹³ “Furthermore ^(AT)the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed ^(AU)they are a ^[l]stiff-necked people. ^14 (AV)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(AW)blot out their name from under heaven; ^(AX)and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

^15 (AY)“So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(AZ)the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(BA)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and ^(BB)broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ And I ^(BC)fell^[m] down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ^19 (BD)For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. ^(BE)But the Lord listened to me at that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I ^(BF)threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²² “Also at ^(BG)Taberah and ^(BH)Massah and ^(BI)Kibroth Hattaavah you ^[n]provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ Likewise, ^(BJ)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ^(BK)you did not believe Him nor obey His voice.