Deuteronomy 8:3

3 And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and [then] he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all [that] goes out of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live.

Deuteronomy 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 8:3

And he humbled thee
Or afflicted thee with want of bread:

and suffered thee to hunger;
that there might be an opportunity of showing his mercy, and exerting his power:

and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
fathers know;
a sort of food they had never seen before, and when they saw it, knew not what it was, but asked, what is it? ( Exodus 16:15 ) . Thus the Lord humbles his people by his Spirit and grace, and brings them to see themselves to be in want, and creates in them desires after spiritual food, and feeds them with Christ the hidden manna, whose person, office, and grace, they were before ignorant of:

that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only;
which is the stay and staff of life, and which strengthens man's heart, and is the main support of it, being the ordinary and usual food man lives upon, and is put for all the rest:

but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth
man live:
not so much by the food he eats as by the blessing of God upon it, and who can make one sort of food as effectual for such a purpose as another; for every creature of God is good being received with thankfulness, and sanctified by the word and prayer; and particularly he could and did make such light food as manna was to answer all the purposes of solid bread for the space of forty years in the wilderness; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``but by all which is created by the Word of the Lord is the life of man;''

which seems to agree with 1Ti 4:3,4
for the meaning is not that the Israelites in the wilderness, and when come into the land of Canaan, should not live by corporeal food only, but by obedience to the commands of God, by means of which they should continue under his protection, which was indeed their case; nor that man does not live in his body only by bread, but in his soul also by the word of God, and the doctrines of it, which is certainly true; spiritual men live a spiritual life on Christ, the Word of God, and bread of life, and on the Gospel and the truths of it, the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus, and are nourished up with the words of faith and sound doctrine, by means of which their spiritual life is supported and maintained; but this is not what is here intended.

Deuteronomy 8:3 In-Context

1 "All of the commandments that I [am] commanding you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and multiply, and you may go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors.

2 And you shall remember all [of] the way that Yahweh your God led you [during] these forty years in the desert in order to humble you and to test you to know what [is] in your heart, whether you would [diligently] keep his commandments or not.

3 And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and [then] he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all [that] goes out of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live.

4 Your clothing did not wear out {on you}, and your feet did not swell [during] these forty years.

5 And you should know with your heart that as a man disciplines his son, [so] Yahweh your God [is] disciplining you.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "fathers"
• [b]. Or "by all [of] the going out of"