Deuteronomy 8:11-20

Against wealth and overconfidence

11 But watch yourself! Don't forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commands or his case laws or his regulations that I am commanding you right now.

12 When you eat, get full, build nice houses, and settle down,

13 and when your herds and your flocks are growing large, your silver and gold are multiplying, and everything you have is thriving,

14 don't become arrogant, forgetting the LORD your God: the one who rescued you from Egypt, from the house of slavery;

15 the one who led you through this vast and terrifying desert of poisonous snakes and scorpions, of cracked ground with no water; the one who made water flow for you out of a hard rock;

16 the one who fed you manna in the wilderness, which your ancestors had never experienced, in order to humble and test you, but in order to do good to you in the end.

17 Don't think to yourself, My own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me.

18 Remember the LORD your God! He's the one who gives you the strength to be prosperous in order to establish the covenant he made with your ancestors—and that's how things stand right now.

19 But if you do, in fact, forget the LORD your God and follow other gods, serving and bowing down to them, I swear to you right now that you will be completely destroyed.

20 Just like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, that's exactly how you will be destroyed—all because you didn't obey the LORD your God's voice.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 8

In this chapter Moses repeats the exhortation to observe the commands of God, and urges the Israelites to it, from the consideration of the great and good things God had done for them in the wilderness, and even in those instances which were chastisements, and were of an humbling nature, De 8:1-6, and on the consideration of the blessings of the good land they were going to possess, De 8:7-9 for which blessings they are exhorted to be thankful, and are cautioned against pride of heart through them, and forgetfulness of God, and of his goodness to them while in the wilderness, and when brought into the land of Canaan, which they were to ascribe to his power and goodness, and not their own, De 8:10-18, and the chapter is concluded with a warning against idolatry, lest they perish through it as the nations before them, De 8:19,20.