The people is put in mind of God’s dealings with them, to the end that they may love him and serve him.

¹ “All the commandments which I am entrusting to you this day, take care to observe them diligently, so that you may live and be multiplied, and so that, upon entering, you may possess the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers.

² And you shall remember the entire journey along which the Lord your God led you, for forty years through the desert, to afflict you, and to test you, and to make known the things that were turning in your soul, whether or not you would keep his commandments.

³ He afflicted you with need, and he gave you Manna as your food, which neither you nor your fathers knew, so as to reveal to you that it is not by bread alone that man lives, but by every word that goes forth from the mouth of God.¹

1. 8:3Not in bread alone, etc: That is, that God is able to make food of what he pleases for the support of man.(Challoner)

⁴ Your garment, with which you were covered, has by no means decayed due to age, and your foot has not been worn down, even to this fortieth year,

⁵ so that you would recognize in your heart that, just as a man educates his son, so has the Lord your God educated you.

⁶ So may you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and fear him.

⁷ For the Lord your God will lead you into a good land: a land of brooks and waters and fountains, in which deep rivers burst forth from its plains and mountains,

⁸ a land of crops, barley, and vineyards, in which fig and pomegranate and olive trees spring up, a land of oil and honey.

⁹ In that place, without any need, you shall eat your bread and enjoy an abundance of all things: where the stones are like iron, and where ore for brass is dug out of its mountains.

¹⁰ So then, when you have eaten and been satisfied, you should bless the Lord your God for the excellent land which he has given to you.

¹¹ Be observant and cautious, lest at some time you may forget the Lord your God, and neglect his commandments, as well as the judgments and ceremonies, which I instruct to you this day.

¹² Otherwise, after you have eaten and been satisfied, and have built beautiful houses and have lived in them,

¹³ and have obtained herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep, and a plentitude of gold and silver and all things,

¹⁴ your heart might be lifted up, and you might not remember the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude,

¹⁵ and who was your leader in the great and terrible wilderness, in which there was the serpent with a burning breath, and the scorpion, and the snake of thirst, and no waters at all. He led streams out of the hardest rock,¹

1. 8:15The Dipsas: A serpent whose bite causes a violent thirst; from whence it has its name, for in Greek dipsa signifies thirst.(Challoner)

¹⁶ and he nourished you in the wilderness with Manna, which your fathers had not known. And after he had afflicted and tested you, in the very end, he took pity on you.

¹⁷ Otherwise, you might say in your heart: ‘My own strength, and the power of my own hand, have brought forth all these things for me.’

¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, that he himself has provided you with strength, so that he may fulfill his covenant, about which he swore to your fathers, just as the present day reveals.

¹⁹ But if you forget the Lord your God, so that you follow foreign gods, and serve and adore them: behold, I now foretell to you that you shall utterly perish.

²⁰ Just like the nations, which the Lord destroyed upon your arrival, so shall you also perish, if you have been disobedient to the voice of the Lord your God.”