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Deuteronomy 8

New International Reader’s Version



1 Make sure you obey every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live, and there will be many of you. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the LORD promised to your people of long ago. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to test you to know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands. 3 He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell. 5 Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The LORD your God guides you, just as parents guide their children. 6 Obey the commands of the LORD your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him. 7 The LORD your God is bringing you into a good land. It has brooks, streams and deep springs of water. Those springs flow in its valleys and hills. 8 It has wheat, barley, vines, fig-trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. 9 There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you. 11 Make sure you don’t forget the LORD your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I’m giving them to you today. 12 But suppose you don’t obey his commands. And suppose you have plenty to eat. You build fine houses and live in them. 13 The number of your herds and flocks increases. You also get more and more silver and gold. And everything you have multiplies. 14 Then your hearts will become proud. And you will forget the LORD your God. The LORD brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves. 15 He led you through that huge and terrible desert. It was a dry land. It didn’t have any water. It had poisonous snakes and scorpions. The LORD gave you water out of solid rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Your people had never even known anything about manna before. The LORD took your pride away. He tested you. He did it so that things would go well with you in the end. 17 You might say to yourself, ‘My power and my strong hands have made me rich.’ 18 But remember the LORD your God. He gives you the ability to produce wealth. That shows he stands by the terms of the covenant he made with you. He promised it to your people of long ago. And he’s still faithful to his covenant today. 19 Don’t forget the LORD your God. Don’t serve other gods. Don’t worship them and bow down to them. I am a witness against you today that if you do, you will certainly be destroyed. 20 You will be destroyed just like the nations the LORD your God is destroying to make room for you. That’s what will happen if you don’t obey him. 

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Deuteronomy 8

English Standard Version



1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. (De 4:1; De 5:32; De 6:1) 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. (Ex 15:25; Ex 16:4; De 1:3; De 2:7; De 8:16; De 29:5; Jud 3:4; 2Ch 32:31; Am 2:10) 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word[1] that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Ex 16:2; Ex 16:12; Ex 16:14; Ex 16:35; Nu 11:6; Nu 21:5; Mt 4:4; Lu 4:4; Joh 6:49) 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. (De 29:5; Ne 9:21) 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. (2Sa 7:14; Pr 3:12; Pr 29:17; Ho 10:10; Heb 12:5; Re 3:19) 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, (De 11:10) 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, (Nu 20:5) 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 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, (De 6:11; De 28:47; De 32:15; Pr 30:9; Ho 13:6) 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, (Ps 78:11; Ps 106:21; 1Co 4:7) 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, (Ex 17:6; Nu 20:11; Nu 21:6; De 1:19; De 32:13; Ps 78:15; Ps 114:8; Isa 30:6; Ho 13:5) 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. (Ex 16:15; De 8:3; Jer 24:5; Heb 12:11) 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ (De 9:4) 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (De 7:8; De 7:12; Pr 10:22; Ho 2:8) 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. (De 4:26; De 30:18) 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. (Da 9:11) 

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