Deuteronomy — Chapter 8

You shall faithfully observe all the Instruction that I enjoin upon you today, that you may thrive and increase and be able to possess the land that GOD promised on oath to your fathers.afathers See note at 1.35.

Remember the long way that the ETERNAL your God has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years, in order to test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep the commandments or not.

[God] subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, in order to teach you that a human being does not live on bread alone, but that one may live on anything that GOD decrees.

The clothes upon you did not wear out, nor did your feet swell these forty years.

Bear in mind that the ETERNAL your God disciplines you just as a manbman See note at 1.31. disciplines his son.

Therefore keep the commandments of the ETERNAL your God: walk in God’s ways and show reverence.

For the ETERNAL your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill;

a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey;

a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper.

When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the ETERNAL your God for the good land given to you.

Take care lest you forget the ETERNAL your God and fail to keep the commandments, rules, and laws that I enjoin upon you today.

When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in,

and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered,

beware lestclest Heb. pen; moved down from v. 12 for clarity. your heart grow haughty and you forget the ETERNAL your God—who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage;

who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its seraphdseraph See note at Num. 21.6. serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock;

who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had never known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end—

and you say to yourselves, “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.”

Remember that it is the ETERNAL your God who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of the covenant made on oath with your fathers, as is still the case.

If you do forget the ETERNAL your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish;

like the nations that GOD will cause to perish before you, so shall you perish—because you did not heed the ETERNAL your God.