Deuteronomy 8:1-2

Context

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments¹ I am giving² you today so that you may live, increase in number,³ and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors.⁴ 8:2 Remember the whole way by which he⁵ has brought you these forty years through the desert⁶ so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

[8:1] ¹tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).

[8:1] ²tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

[8:1] ³tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

[8:1] ⁴tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).

[8:2] ⁵tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:2] ⁶tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.