Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
- BSB You ate no bread and drank no wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.
- NKJV You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.
- NASB You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or other strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the Lord your God.
- NLT You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but he provided for you so you would know that he is the Lord your God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They survived without ordinary bread or wine so they would know the Lord is their God. God's supernatural provision was meant to reveal his identity.
Overview
Living on manna rather than bread and wine, Israel learned dependence on God alone for life. The purpose was relational: 'that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.' God's provision aimed not merely at survival but at fostering covenant knowledge of him, anticipating Christ, the true bread from heaven, who gives life to all who feed on him by faith.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Deut 8:3And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
- Eph 5:18And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
- Ps 78:24–25And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
- Neh 9:15And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
- Num 16:14Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.
- 1 Cor 10:4And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
- Num 20:8Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
- Exod 16:35And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
- Exod 16:12I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
- 1 Cor 9:25And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 29:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.