Deuteronomy 29:5

5 I took you through the wilderness for forty years and through all that time the clothes on your backs didn't wear out, the sandals on your feet didn't wear out,

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 massive trials to which you were eyewitnesses, the great signs and miracle-wonders.
4 But God didn't give you an understanding heart or perceptive eyes or attentive ears until right now, this very day.
5 I took you through the wilderness for forty years and through all that time the clothes on your backs didn't wear out, the sandals on your feet didn't wear out,
6 and you lived well without bread and wine and beer, proving to you that I am in fact God, your God.
7 When you arrived here in this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan met us primed for war but we beat them.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.