Deuteronomy

Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

Be careful to fulfill all the commandments I give you today, that you may live and increase, and conquer the land the Lord promised on oath to your fathers.

Remember how the Lord, your God, brought you through the desert for forty years. He humbled you to test you and know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

He made you experience want, he made you experience hunger, but he gave you manna to eat which neither you nor your fathers had known, to show you that one does not live on bread alone, but also by everything that comes from the mouth of God.

Your garment did not even fray, or your foot swell all these forty years.

Understand, then, that the Lord has taught you like a father teaches his child.

Observe the commandments of the Lord, your God; follow his ways and revere him.

For the Lord, your God, will bring you into that good land, a land of streams and rivers, of subterranean waters that gush forth in the valleys and mountains,

a land of wheat and barley, of grapes and figs, of pomegranates and olives, a land of oil and honey,

a land where the bread you eat is not rationed and where you will lack nothing, a land with iron in stones and copper mines in the mountains.

You shall eat until satisfied and bless the Lord for the good land he has given you.

Warnings About Forgetting God

So take care that you do not forget the Lord, your God, by neglecting the commandments, norms, and laws I give you today.

And when you have eaten and have been satisfied, when you have built comfortable homes and live in them,

when your livestock have multiplied, when you have silver and gold in abundance and an increase of good things of every kind,

then do not let your heart become proud and do not forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.

He has led you across this great, terrible desert full of fiery serpents, scorpions, and arid land without water. But for you, he made water gush forth from the hardest rock.

And he fed you in the desert with manna which your fathers did not know. He made you experience want and put you to the test so that it would be for your good later on,

lest you say, “With my own strength, I have attained all these good things.”

Remember the Lord, your God, who gave you the power to become prosperous, as you are today, fulfilling the Covenant he promised under oath to your fathers.

But if you forget the Lord and follow other gods, if you pay them homage and bow before them, I warn you right now that you will surely perish.

In the same way that the Lord destroyed the nations that stood in your way, so will he destroy you if you disobey the Lord, your God.