Deuteronomy 29:5

5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoe has not grown old on your foot.

Deuteronomy 29:5 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 29:5

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness
From the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day, which though not quite complete, is given as a round number. Eupolemus F4, an Heathen writer, confirms this date of the ministry of Moses among the Israelites; he says, Moses performed the office of a prophet forty years:

your clothes are not waxen old upon you:
were not worn out; all those forty years they had been in the wilderness, they had never wanted clothes fitting for them, according to their age and stature, and which decayed not; (See Gill on Deuteronomy 8:4);

and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot;
which were necessary to wear in travelling, and especially in a rugged wilderness; and yet, thought they had been always in use during so long a time, were not worn out, which was really miraculous; (See Gill on Deuteronomy 8:4).


FOOTNOTES:

F4 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30. p. 447.

Deuteronomy 29:5 In-Context

3 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:
4 but the LORD has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoe has not grown old on your foot.
6 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am the LORD your God.
7 When you came to this place, Sichon the king of Heshbon, and `Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them:
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.