Remember the wilderness years
1Be careful to do the whole commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live, multiply, and enter and possess the land Yahweh swore to your fathers. 2Remember the whole way Yahweh your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, humbling you and testing you, to know what was in your heart — whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3He humbled you and let you go hungry, then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of Yahweh. 4Your clothes did not wear out on you, and your feet did not swell, these forty years. 5Know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, Yahweh your God disciplines you. 6Keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, walking in his ways and fearing him. 7For Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land — a land of streams of water, of springs and underground waters flowing out in valleys and hills, 8a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, 9a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you will dig copper. 10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise Yahweh your God for the good land he has given you.
A warning against a proud heart
11Be careful not to forget Yahweh your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes that I am giving you today. 12When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and live in them, 13when your herds and flocks increase, when your silver and gold increase, when everything you own increases, 14do not let your heart grow proud so that you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15who led you through that great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, its thirsty ground with no water, who brought you water out of flint rock, 16who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, to humble you and test you, and in the end to do you good. 17Do not say to yourself, “My own power and the strength of my own hand have gained me this wealth.” 18Remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as he is doing today. 19But if you ever forget Yahweh your God and follow other gods, serving them and bowing down to them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. 20Like the nations Yahweh is destroying before you, so you will perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.
