1“All the commandments which I am entrusting to you this day, take care to observe them diligently, so that you may live and be multiplied, and so that, upon entering, you may possess the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers.
2And you shall remember the entire journey along which the Lord your God led you, for forty years through the desert, to afflict you, and to test you, and to make known the things that were turning in your soul, whether or not you would keep his commandments.
3He afflicted you with need, and he gave you Manna as your food, which neither you nor your fathers knew, so as to reveal to you that it is not by bread alone that man lives, but by every word that goes forth from the mouth of God.
4Your garment, with which you were covered, has by no means decayed due to age, and your foot has not been worn down, even to this fortieth year,
5so that you would recognize in your heart that, just as a man educates his son, so has the Lord your God educated you.
6So may you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and fear him.
7For the Lord your God will lead you into a good land: a land of brooks and waters and fountains, in which deep rivers burst forth from its plains and mountains,
8a land of crops, barley, and vineyards, in which fig and pomegranate and olive trees spring up, a land of oil and honey.
9In that place, without any need, you shall eat your bread and enjoy an abundance of all things: where the stones are like iron, and where ore for brass is dug out of its mountains.
10So then, when you have eaten and been satisfied, you should bless the Lord your God for the excellent land which he has given to you.
11Be observant and cautious, lest at some time you may forget the Lord your God, and neglect his commandments, as well as the judgments and ceremonies, which I instruct to you this day.
12Otherwise, after you have eaten and been satisfied, and have built beautiful houses and have lived in them,
13and have obtained herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep, and a plentitude of gold and silver and all things,
14your heart might be lifted up, and you might not remember the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude,
15and who was your leader in the great and terrible wilderness, in which there was the serpent with a burning breath, and the scorpion, and the snake of thirst, and no waters at all. He led streams out of the hardest rock,
16and he nourished you in the wilderness with Manna, which your fathers had not known. And after he had afflicted and tested you, in the very end, he took pity on you.
17Otherwise, you might say in your heart: ‘My own strength, and the power of my own hand, have brought forth all these things for me.’
18But remember the Lord your God, that he himself has provided you with strength, so that he may fulfill his covenant, about which he swore to your fathers, just as the present day reveals.
19But if you forget the Lord your God, so that you follow foreign gods, and serve and adore them: behold, I now foretell to you that you shall utterly perish.
20Just like the nations, which the Lord destroyed upon your arrival, so shall you also perish, if you have been disobedient to the voice of the Lord your God.”
Verse 3
Not in bread alone: That is, that God is able to make food of what he pleases for the support of man.
One who possesses the Word, who is almighty God, needs nothing and never lacks any of the things he desires, for the Word is an infinite possession and the source of all our wealth. However, someone may object and insist that he has often seen the just in need of food. This is rare and happens only where no one else is just. Besides, let him read the beautiful sentence, “It is not by bread alone that the just man lives, but by the Word of the Lord,” who is the true bread, the bread of heaven. The good man is never really in want as long as he keeps intact his adherence to faith in God. For he can ask for and receive whatever he needs from the Father of all, and he can enjoy whatever belongs to him, if only he obey his Son. Then too, he has this advantage, that he can be free from feeling any want. The Word, who acts as our educator, gives us riches. There is no need to envy the wealth of others with those who have gained freedom from want through him. He who possesses this sort of wealth will inherit the kingdom of God.
Verse 4
Is He not good, who in the wilderness fed countless thousands of people with bread from heaven, ensuring they lacked nothing and could rest without toil? So that for forty years, their clothing did not wear out nor did their shoes, a symbol for the faithful of the Resurrection to come, showing that neither the glory of great deeds, nor the beauty of the power with which He has clothed us, nor the stream of human life is in vain.
Is he not good, who in the wilderness fed with bread from heaven such countless thousands of the people, lest any famine should assail them, without need of toil, in the enjoyment of rest? For the space of twenty years, their raiment grew not old, nor were their shoes worn, a figure, which, to the faithful, points to the resurrection that is to come. This shows that the glory of great deeds and the beauty of the power by which he has clothed us and the stream of human life is not absurd, not for nothing.
Nourish your soul with the fear of God, and God will nourish [your] body. Do these things, so that what you yourself are unable [to procure] may be given you by God. Take note of this, if God does not give the rain and the wind, it avails you naught, even if you are anxious. Obey God, therefore, and creation will obey your needs. If God nourished Israel for forty years in the desert, while they were murmuring and disbelieving, and effortlessly preserved their sandals and clothing, how much more so in the case of believers?
God granted to the garments of the Israelites their proper state without any damage for forty years. If so, how much more does he grant a very happy temperament of certain state to the bodies of those who obey his command until they may be turned into something better? This embetterment occurs not by the death of man, by which the body is deserted by the soul, but by a blessed change from mortality to immortality, from an animal to a spiritual quality.
If the garments of the Israelites could last without wearing out for so many years in the desert and the hides of dead animals could continue undestroyed for so long a time in their shoes, surely God can extend the quality of incorruption in certain bodies for as long as he wills. I think therefore that the body of the Lord is the same now in heaven as it was when he ascended into heaven.
Verse 10
Do you see how it is especially appropriate after the enjoyment of food to set a spiritual meal for yourself lest the soul, after satiety of bodily food, should lose its zest and fall into some disaster and make way for the wiles of the devil, who is always looking for an opportunity and anxious to deliver us a blow at a critical moment?
Verse 15
The Dipsas: A serpent whose bite causeth a violent thirst; from whence it has its name, for in Greek dipsa signifies thirst.
Verse 17
Such a one is he who ascribes all his success to his own merits and hence, feeling self-assured, does not recognize his own errors which drag him with their extended rope afar. For, if he believes that his acquisition of property is due either to mere chance or to shrewd cunning, there is no occasion for him to feel undue pride in matters to which there is no glory attached, or where the labor results in nothing, or where there is evidence of shameless cupidity, which prescribes no limits in its pursuit of pleasure.
Verse 18
By these words [Scripture] is showing clearly that it is God who grants us gifts of good things and that we ought as servants of the grace of God to sow God’s gracious gifts and enable our neighbors to become people of honor. The aim is for the man of self-control to enable those who are continent to find their fulfillment, the man of courage to do the same for the noble, the man of practical wisdom for the understanding, and the man of justice for the just.