^8:1You must keep carefully all these commandments¹ I am giving² you today so that you may live, increase in number,³ and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors.⁴^8:2Remember the whole way by which he⁵ has brought you these forty years through the desert⁶ so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not. ^8:3So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna.⁷ He did this to teach you⁸ that humankind⁹ cannot live by bread¹⁰ alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth.¹¹^8:4Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these forty years. ^8:5Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child,¹² the Lord your God disciplines you. ^8:6So you must keep his¹³ commandments, live according to his standards,¹⁴ and revere him. ^8:7For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks,¹⁵ springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills, ^8:8a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, ^8:9a land where you may eat food¹⁶ in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron¹⁷ and from whose hills you can mine copper. ^8:10You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.

Read in Logos

Deuteronomy 8:3: And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna…that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Footnotes

1 The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).
2 Heb “commanding” (so ). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).
3 Heb “multiply” (so , , ); , “increase.”
4 Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).
5 Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 Or “wilderness” (so , , ); likewise in v. 15.
7 Heb “manna which you and your ancestors did not know.” By popular etymology the word “manna” comes from the Hebrew phrase מָן הוּא (man hu’), i.e., “What is it?” (Exod 16:15). The question remains unanswered to this very day. Elsewhere the material is said to be “white like coriander seed” with “a taste like honey cakes” (Exod 16:31; cf. Num 11:7). Modern attempts to associate it with various desert plants are unsuccessful for the text says it was a new thing and, furthermore, one that appeared and disappeared miraculously (Exod 16:21–27).
8 Heb “in order to make known to you.” In the Hebrew text this statement is subordinated to what precedes, resulting in a very long sentence in English. The translation makes this statement a separate sentence for stylistic reasons.
9 Heb “the man,” but in a generic sense, referring to the whole human race (“mankind” or “humankind”).
10 The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. ).
11 Jesus quoted this text to the devil in the midst of his forty-day fast to make the point that spiritual nourishment is incomparably more important than mere physical bread (Matt 4:4; cf. Luke 4:4).
12 Heb “just as a man disciplines his son.” The Hebrew text reflects the patriarchal idiom of the culture.
13 Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
14 Heb “by walking in his ways.” The “ways” of the Lord refer here to his moral standards as reflected in his commandments. The verb “walk” is used frequently in the Bible (both OT and NT) for one’s moral and ethical behavior.
15 Or “wadis.”
16 The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. , , ) or “bread” in particular (cf. , , ).
17 A land whose stones are iron. Since iron deposits are few and far between in Palestine, the reference here is probably to iron ore found in mines as opposed to the meteorite iron more commonly known in that area.