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LXX Deuteronomy

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 8

1 You shall observe to do all the commands which I charge you today, that you may live and be multiplied, and enter in and inherit the land, which the Lord your God swore to your fathers.⁠ 2 And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you in the wilderness, that he might afflict you, and try you,⁠ and that the things in your heart might be made manifest, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he afflicted you and straitened you with hunger, and fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know; that he might teach you that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, your feet were not painfully hardened, look, these forty years. 5 And you shall know in your heart, that as if any man should discipline his son, so the Lord your God will discipline you. 6 And you shall keep the commands of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7 For the Lord your God will bring you into a good and extensive land, where there are torrents of waters, and fountains of deep places issuing through the plains and through the mountains: 8 a land of wheat and barley, in which are vines, figs, pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land on which you shall not eat your bread with poverty, and you shall not lack anything upon it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of its mountains you shall dig brass. 10 And you shall eat and be filled, and shall bless the Lord your God on the good land, which he has given you. 11 Take heed to yourself that you do not forget the Lord your God, so as not to keep his commands, and his judgments, and ordinances, which I command you this day: 12 for fear that when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses, and lived in them; 13 and your oxen and your sheep are multiplied to you, and your silver and your gold are multiplied to you, and all your possessions are multiplied to you, 14 you should be exalted in heart, and forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: 15 who brought you through that great and terrible wilderness, where is the biting serpent, and scorpion, and drought, where there was no water; who brought you a fountain of water out of the flinty rock: 16 who fed you with manna in the wilderness, which your fathers did not know; that he might afflict you, and thoroughly try you, and do you good in your latter days. 17 For fear that you should say in your heart, My strength, and the power of my hand have made for me this great wealth. 18 But you shall remember the Lord your God, that he gives you strength to get wealth; even that he may establish his covenant, which the Lord swore to your fathers, as at this day. 19 And it will happen if you do at all forget the Lord your God, and should go after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall surely perish. 20 As also the other nations which the Lord destroys before your face, so you will perish, because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 8:2 and LXX Deuteronomy 8:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Deuteronomy 8 highlights a forty-year period in the wilderness meant to humble and test Israel, but the Greek Septuagint translation removes the explicit mention of forty years, perhaps in an attempt to harmonize the narrative timeline.

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

LXX Deuteronomy 8:2

Septuagint
1 You shall observe to do all the commands which I charge you today, that you may live and be multiplied, and enter in and inherit the land, which the Lord your God swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you in the wilderness, that he might afflict you, and try you, and that the things in your heart might be made manifest, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he afflicted you and straitened you with hunger, and fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know; that he might teach you that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, your feet were not painfully hardened, look, these forty years.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

References

"... The LXX differs from the Masoretic text by utilizing the plural form “commandments” instead of the collective singular “commandment”. Although the Masoretic text only calls God יהוה, the LXX uses the phrase, “the Lord your God” (κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν). If the Israelites keep God’s commandments, they will live, become numerous, and inherit the land God promised to their fathers. The Israelites should remember how God led them in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2). Unlike 4Q30 and the Masoretic text, the LXX of Deuteronomy 8:2 does not mention forty years ..."
Christopher Winchester, “Thematic Association in the Gospel of Matthew: Situating Exegesis in the Gospel of Matthew in Its Second Temple Context” (PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 2017), 188.

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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