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.
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.
- KJV Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD 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.
- 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 8:3He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.
- Eph 5:18Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
- Ps 78:24–25He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.
- Neh 9:15and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.
- Num 16:14Moreover you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We won’t come up.”
- 1 Cor 10:4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
- Num 20:8“Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.”
- Exod 16:35The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
- Exod 16:12“I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.’”
- 1 Cor 9:25Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.