12 lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and lived therein;
Lest 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.
Because you didn't serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.
who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn't your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? then it was well with him.
who say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.
"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 8
Commentary on Deuteronomy 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
Moses had charged parents in teaching their children to whet the word of God upon them (ch. 6:7) by frequent repetition of the same things over and over again; and here he himself takes the same method of instructing the Israelites as his children, frequently inculcating the same precepts and cautions, with the same motives or arguments to enforce them, that what they heard so often might abide with them. In this chapter Moses gives them,
Deu 8:1-9
The charge here given them is the same as before, to keep and do all God's commandments. Their obedience must be,
Deu 8:10-20
Moses, having mentioned the great plenty they would find in the land of Canaan, finds it necessary to caution them against the abuse of that plenty, which was a sin they would be the more prone to new that they came into the vineyard of the Lord, immediately out of a barren desert.