Go to Related Reading
About this book

Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 8

1 You must keep carefully all these commandments I am giving you today so that you may live, increase in number, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors.⁠ 2 Remember the whole way by which he has brought you these 40 years through the wilderness so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.⁠ 3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. He did this to teach you that humankind cannot live by bread alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth.⁠ 4 Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these 40 years. 5 Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, so the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you must keep his commandments, live according to his standards, and revere him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks, springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills,⁠ 8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat food in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper.⁠ 10 You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.⁠ 11 Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. 12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses,⁠ 13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything,⁠ 14 be sure you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, 15 and who brought you through the great, fearful wilderness of venomous serpents and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow from hard rock⁠ and 16 fed you in the wilderness with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you and eventually bring good to you. 17 Be careful not to say, “My own ability and skill have gotten me this wealth.” 18 You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, even as he has to this day. 19 Now if you forget the Lord your God at all and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated. 20 Just like the nations the Lord is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you because you would not obey him.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 8:10 and Didache 10:1

Hebrew Bible · Early Christian

Share:

Summary

In Deuteronomy, Moses tells Israel that after eating its fill in the good land it will praise God. The Didache, an early church manual, begins its prayer after the meal with the same language of eating one's fill, the basis of the Jewish grace.

Passages

Deuteronomy 8:10

Hebrew Bible
7 For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks, springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat food in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper. 10 You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Didache 10:1

Early Christian
1 After you have eaten your fill, give thanks in this way: 2 'We thank You, Holy Father, for Your Holy Name that You have allowed to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge, faith, and immortality that You revealed to us through Jesus Your Child. May You be glorified forever.' 3 'You, Lord Almighty, created all things for the sake of Your Name and provided food and drink for people to enjoy, so they might thank You. But You have blessed us with spiritual food and drink and eternal light through Your Child.' 4 'Above all, we thank You because You are mighty. May You be glorified forever.'
90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

References

“... This might also be inferred from the terminology in Did 10:1: "When you have had your fill" (μετὰ δὲ τὸ ἐμπλησθῆναι). Besides indicating that a material satiation from a meal is involved here, the verb ἐμπλησθῆναι also recalls the presciption in Deut 8:10 (LXX): "And you shall eat and be filled (καὶ φάγῃ καὶ ἐμπλησθήσῃ) and shall bless the Lord your God .... " The combination of φαγεῖν with ἐμπλησθῆναι ("to eat one's fill") appears to be a technical formula in the Bible aiming at the prosperous situation in the promised land (cf. also Deut 6:11; 8:12; Neh 9:25). In rabbinic sources, the Hebrew version of Deut 8:10 underlies the obligation to recite the Birkat Ha-Mazon and this verse is considered so important that it is also at the basis of the second strophe of the Birkat Ha-Mazon. The use of the term ἐμπλησθῆναι at the end of the meal may indicate that now the duty of reciting the prayer, enjoined in Deut 8:10, is performed. ...”
Huub van de Sandt and David Flusser, The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity, Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, Section 3: Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature 5 (Assen: Royal Van Gorcum, 2002), 312.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tags

Your feedback

Deuteronomy 8:10 and Didache 10:1

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library