For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,
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;
- BSB Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell,
- 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,
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 30:9lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
- Hos 13:5–6I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
- Deut 28:47Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
- Deut 32:15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
- Amos 5:11Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
- Eccl 2:4I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.
- Deut 31:20For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
- Hag 1:4“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?
- Jer 22:14–15who says, ‘I will build me a wide house and spacious rooms,’ and cuts out windows for himself; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
- Luke 17:28Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;
- Ezek 11:3who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, 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.