11 “Be careful that you do not (A)forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today; 12 otherwise, (B)when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases, 14 then your heart will [a]become proud and you will (C)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [b]slavery; 15 He who led you through (D)the great and terrible wilderness, with its (E)fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who (F)brought water for you out of the rock of flint. 16 In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna (G)which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to (H)put you to the test, to do good for you [c]in the end. 17 Otherwise, (I)you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ 18 But you are to remember the Lord your God, for (J)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And it shall come about, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, (K)I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord eliminates from you, so (L)you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 8:14 Lit be high
  2. Deuteronomy 8:14 Lit slaves
  3. Deuteronomy 8:16 Lit at your end

Against wealth and overconfidence

11 But watch yourself! Don’t forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commands or his case laws or his regulations that I am commanding you right now. 12 When you eat, get full, build nice houses, and settle down, 13 and when your herds and your flocks are growing large, your silver and gold are multiplying, and everything you have is thriving, 14 don’t become arrogant, forgetting the Lord your God:

the one who rescued you from Egypt, from the house of slavery;

15 the one who led you through this vast and terrifying desert of poisonous snakes and scorpions, of cracked ground with no water;

the one who made water flow for you out of a hard rock;

16 the one who fed you manna in the wilderness, which your ancestors had never experienced, in order to humble and test you, but in order to do good to you in the end.

17 Don’t think to yourself, My own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me. 18 Remember the Lord your God! He’s the one who gives you the strength to be prosperous in order to establish the covenant he made with your ancestors—and that’s how things stand right now. 19 But if you do, in fact, forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, serving and bowing down to them, I swear to you right now that you will be completely destroyed. 20 Just like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, that’s exactly how you will be destroyed—all because you didn’t obey the Lord your God’s voice.

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