Deuteronomy 8:6-16

6 Obey the commands of the Lord your God, living as he has commanded you and respecting him.

7 The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with rivers and pools of water, with springs that flow in the valleys and hills,

8 a land that has wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, and honey.

9 It is a land where you will have plenty of food, where you will have everything you need, where the rocks are iron, and where you can dig copper out of the hills.

10 When you have all you want to eat, then praise the Lord your God for giving you a good land.

11 Be careful not to forget the Lord your God so that you fail to obey his commands, laws, and rules that I am giving to you today.

12 When you eat all you want and build nice houses and live in them,

13 when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase, when you have more of everything,

14 then your heart will become proud. You will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.

15 He led you through the large and terrible desert that was dry and had no water, and that had poisonous snakes and stinging insects. He gave you water from a solid rock

16 and manna to eat in the desert. Manna was something your ancestors had never seen. He did this to take away your pride and to test you, so things would go well for you in the end.

Deuteronomy 8:6-16 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.