Remember the wilderness
Deuteronomy · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 55bcdb7d4bad2827 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: c. 1406 BC · Year 40, month 11 (Deuteronomy 1:3). Dated from 1 Kings 6:1 (the Exodus c. 1446 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC, placing these speeches about 1220 BC.
Moses tells Israel to remember the forty years in which God humbled and tested them, feeding them with manna to teach that man does not live on bread alone but on every word from the LORD’s mouth; their clothes did not wear out. In a good land of plenty they must not forget him or say that their own power gained their wealth.
Deuteronomy records Moses’ last speeches to the new generation of Israel on the plains of Moab, in the fortieth year after the Exodus (1:3). It looks back over the journey from Egypt and Horeb and forward to life in the land, calling Israel to love the LORD and remember what he has done. Each section below lists what Moses recalls, with links to those events on the timeline, and where the rest of Scripture takes up the passage.
The Ten Commandments, the great commandment, and the statutes for life in the land, ending with blessings and curses (4:44–28:68).
Primary Scripture
8:1 You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.
8:2 Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
8:3 He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
8:4 Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
8:5 So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
8:6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him.
8:7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;
8:8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;
8:9 a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.
8:10 When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you.
8:11 Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day.
8:12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell,
8:13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied,
8:14 then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
8:15 He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
8:16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
8:17 You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”
8:18 But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.
8:19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.
8:20 Like the nations that the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.
Moses looks back
Forty years of testing and care.
The manna (Exodus 16).
Water from the flinty rock (Exodus 17).
Where Scripture takes it up
Jesus answers the tempter with Deuteronomy 8:3.
Jesus’ parable of the rich fool.
Hypocrisy, possessions, readiness and repentance
Location evidence
Plains of Moab: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.64, 31.85]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.56,31.77],[35.7,31.91]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Numbers 33:48–49 · extent of the camp
For the class
Which is the greater danger in this chapter, hunger in the wilderness or plenty in the land?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial
Study guide: original editorial writing for Scripture Atlas.
Place coordinates: OpenBible.info, CC BY 4.0.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm