Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell,
Parallel translations
- WEB lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses, and lived in them;
- KJV Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
- NKJV lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them;
- NASB otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them,
- NLT For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,
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
The warning continues: when Israel is full and dwelling in fine houses, danger lurks. Comfort can lead the heart away from God.
Overview
Moses describes the settled, prosperous life that may follow the conquest. The very success God grants can tempt the heart to complacency. This sets up the central warning of the chapter: that ease and abundance must not displace humble dependence on the LORD.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 30:9Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.
- Hos 13:5–6I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.
- Deut 28:47Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,
- Deut 32:15But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
- Amos 5:11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
- Eccl 2:4I expanded my pursuits. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.
- Deut 31:20When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.
- Hag 1:4“Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
- Jer 22:14–15who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.
- Luke 17:28It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
- Ezek 11:3They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 8:12 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.