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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 8:2 and 2 Chronicles 32:31

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy and 2 Chronicles describe God testing people to learn what is in their hearts. Israel is tested in the wilderness through manna and Hezekiah is tested to reveal his character. Both follow a pattern where God learns by testing people.

Passages

Deuteronomy 8:2

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

2 Chronicles 32:31

Hebrew Bible
29 He built royal cities and owned a large number of sheep and cattle, for God gave him a huge amount of possessions. 30 Hezekiah dammed up the source of the waters of the Upper Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah succeeded in all that he did. 31 So when the envoys arrived from the Babylonian officials to visit him and inquire about the sign that occurred in the land, God left him alone to test him in order to know his true motives. 32 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, including his faithful deeds, are recorded in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, included in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 33 Hezekiah passed away and was buried on the ascent of the tombs of the descendants of David. All the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem buried him with great honor. His son Manasseh replaced him as king.
400–301 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Chronicles

References

"... Deuteronomy 8:2 ... that YHWH your God led you in the wilderness these past forty years. Compare Amos 2:10, 'I led you in the wilderness for forty years,' and 29:5. in order to chastise you. Compare verses 3, 16, in the sense of discipline, as in verse 5. And compare Psalm 119:71, 'How good it is for me to have been chastised ('so that I learn your rules' and verse 75, 'I know your judgments are just, you chastised me rightly' ... to test you ... Compare 6:16 ... to know what was in your heart: whether you would keep his commandments or not. Compare 13:3; Judges 3:4; 2 Chronicles 32:31. The verse here is dependent on the manna episode in Exodus 16:4, 'That I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.' The manna functioned as a test for Israel's disposition regarding God (compare the rebellious attitude in connection with the manna in Numbers 21:5) and as a test for the obedience of God's instructions. Compare Exodus 16:19-20, 26-29 for the violation of the divine commandments in connection with the gathering of the manna ..."
Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 5 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 388.

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 8:2 and 2 Chronicles 32:31

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