Deuteronomychapter 8

20 verses · ASV

This chapter sends 187 cross-references outward and receives 296 — heaviest partner: Deuteronomy.

Chapter summary

‘Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD’. Moses remembers the manna, the clothes that did not wear out, the feet that did not swell. The wilderness was a school — humbling, proving, teaching dependence. A good land is coming — brooks, fountains, wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, oil olive, honey; iron and brass for tools. Beware of full stomachs: ‘beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God … lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein … thine heart be lifted up’. Jesus' first wilderness answer comes from this chapter (Matt 4:4).

Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.

Context

Law · Moses — see the Deuteronomy overview for the book's full setting.

1 All the commandment which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Jehovah sware unto your fathers.

2 And thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or not.

3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live.

4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.

5 And thou shalt consider in thy heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so Jehovah thy God chasteneth thee.

6 And thou shalt keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

7 For Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

8 a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;

9 a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.