Deuteronomy 8
New Living Translation
A Call to Remember and Obey
8 “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
6 “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills. 8 It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey. 9 It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. 10 When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. 12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! 14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
19 “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. 20 Just as the Lord has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 8
Lexham English Bible
8 “All of the commandments[a] that I am commanding you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and multiply, and you may go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors.[b] 2 And you shall remember all of the way that Yahweh your God led you during these forty years in the desert in order to humble you and to test you to know what is in your heart, whether you would diligently keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and then he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors[c] know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all that goes out[d] of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you,[e] and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 And you should know with your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God is disciplining you.[f] 6 So you must keep the commandments of Yahweh your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For Yahweh your God is bringing you to a good land with streams of water, springs and underground water, welling up in the valleys[g] and in the hills,[h] 8 to a land of wheat and barley and vines[i] and fig trees[j] and pomegranate trees,[k] a land of olive trees,[l] olive oil and honey; 9 to a land where you may eat food in it without scarcity;[m] you will not find anything lacking in it, a land where its stones are iron and from its mountains you can mine copper. 10 And you will eat, and you will be satisfied,[n] and you will bless Yahweh your God because of the good land that he has given to you.
11 “Take care for yourself so that you not forget Yahweh your God by not keeping his commandments and his regulations and his statutes that I am commanding you today,[o] 12 lest when you have eaten and you are satisfied and you have built good houses and you live in them, 13 and your herds and your flocks have multiplied, and you have accumulated silver and gold,[p] and all that you have[q] has multiplied, 14 then your heart becomes proud[r] and you forget Yahweh your God, the one who brought you out[s] from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, 15 the one leading you in the great and terrible desert infested with dangerous[t] snakes[u] and scorpions[v] and parched ground, where there is[w] no water, and the one bringing out water for you from flint rock, 16 the one feeding you[x] manna in the desert, food that your ancestors[y] did not know, in order to humble you and in order to test you so that he could do good to you in the future.[z] 17 And you may think[aa] in your heart, ‘My strength and the might of my hand acquired this wealth for[ab] me.’ 18 But you must remember Yahweh your God, for he is the one giving you strength to acquire wealth in order to confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors[ac] as it is today.[ad] 19 And it will happen that if you indeed forget Yahweh your God and you go after other gods and you serve them and you bow down before them, I warn you today that you will surely perish. 20 As with the nations that Yahweh is destroying before you,[ae] so you shall perish because you would not obey the voice of Yahweh your God.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 8:1 Or “every commandment”
- Deuteronomy 8:1 Or “your fathers”
- Deuteronomy 8:3 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 8:3 Or “by all of the going out of”
- Deuteronomy 8:4 Literally “from on you”
- Deuteronomy 8:5 Or “has disciplined you”
- Deuteronomy 8:7 Hebrew “valley”
- Deuteronomy 8:7 Hebrew “hill”
- Deuteronomy 8:8 Hebrew “vine”
- Deuteronomy 8:8 Hebrew “fig tree”
- Deuteronomy 8:8 Hebrew “pomegranate tree”
- Deuteronomy 8:8 Hebrew “olive tree”
- Deuteronomy 8:9 Literally “not in scarcity”
- Deuteronomy 8:10 Literally “you will eat your fill”
- Deuteronomy 8:11 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 8:13 Literally “and silver and gold has multiplied for you”
- Deuteronomy 8:13 Literally “is for you”
- Deuteronomy 8:14 Literally “raises up”
- Deuteronomy 8:14 Literally “the one bringing you out”
- Deuteronomy 8:15 Literally “burning”
- Deuteronomy 8:15 Hebrew “snake”
- Deuteronomy 8:15 Hebrew “scorpion”
- Deuteronomy 8:15 Or “was”
- Deuteronomy 8:16 Literally “causing you to eat”
- Deuteronomy 8:16 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 8:16 Literally “in the end/later”
- Deuteronomy 8:17 Or “say”
- Deuteronomy 8:17 Literally “gave this wealth to”
- Deuteronomy 8:18 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 8:18 Literally “as the day the this”
- Deuteronomy 8:20 Literally “from your faces”
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software