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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 8:14 and Hosea 13:6

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy warns that abundance can lead to pride and forgetfulness of the exodus and wilderness experience. Hosea refers to this, noting that once Israel was satisfied, they forgot the one who cared for them in the wilderness.

Passages

Deuteronomy 8:14

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Hosea 13:6

Hebrew Bible
4 But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you must not acknowledge any God but me. Except for me there is no Savior. 5 I cared for you in the wilderness, in the dry desert where no water was. 6 When they were fed, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; as a result, they forgot me! 7 So I will pounce on them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk by the path. 8 I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs—I will rip open their chests. I will devour them there like a lion—like a wild animal would tear them apart.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hosea

References

"... in answering the question about the direction of dependence, it is important to pay much attention to the contexts of both parts of the parallel. How do the shared phrases interact with their contexts? Are there signs of reinterpretation? In my own study of the verbal parallels in Hosea and Deuteronomy, these criteria have proved relevant, in particular Lyons’ first three criteria. For example, Hos 13:5–6 appears to be a quotation of textual elements taken from Deuteronomy 8:11–14, since Hos 13:5–6 contains Deuteronomic elements, modifies the Deuteronomic command and is dependent on information in Deuteronomy 8. Hosea 2:10 apparently quotes Deuteronomy 8:13, because a split-up pattern of a Deuteronomic stock phrase can be observed in Hos 2:10b ..."
Carsten Vang, “Inner-Biblical Quotations in Old Testament Narratives: Some Methodological Considerations (e.g., 1 Sam 15:2 and Deut 25:17–19),” OTE 33.3 (2020): 515–537.

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

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Deuteronomy 8:14 and Hosea 13:6

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