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Deuteronomy 31:20

in Deuteronomy 31

When 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.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxed fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.

KJV

For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.

This verse in Deuteronomy 31

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song

on Deuteronomy 31:19-21

The song is commissioned as evidence for a trial that has not opened. Verse 21 says why it will hold: “it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants”.

This site's exposition

they will eat their fill and prosper

Prosper translates a Hebrew word for growing fat. The song that follows takes up the same picture at 32:15, where Jeshurun grows fat and kicks and then abandons the God who made him. The prosperity promised with the land becomes the occasion of the turning this verse forecasts.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

): They shall have eaten and filled themselves; this is all they will aim at in eating, to gratify their own appetites, and then they will wax fat, grow secure and sensual; their security will take off their dread of God and his judgments; and their sensuality will incline them to the idolatries of the heathen, which made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), which would be such manifest indications of God's displeasure against them that they themselves would be constrained to own it: Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? Those that have sinned away their God will find that thereby they pull all mischiefs upon their own heads.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the Lord said unto Moses, . . . this people will rise up--In this remarkable interview, Moses was distinctly apprised of the infidelity of Israel, their corruptions of the true religion through intercourse with the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan (Am 5:26), and their chastisements in consequence of those national defections.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

The words behind it

22 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כִּֽי־if

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • אֲבִיאֶ֜נּוּI will bring it

    ʾavienuH935 →2568 times

  • אֶֽל־into

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הָאֲדָמָ֣ה׀the land

    haadamahH127 →225 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • נִשְׁבַּ֣עְתִּיI swore

    nishba'tiH7650 →186 times

  • לַאֲבֹתָ֗יוto ancestors its

    laavotavH1 →1212 times

  • זָבַ֤תflowing of

    zavatH2100 →42 times

  • חָלָב֙milk

    chalavH2461 →44 times

  • וּדְבַ֔שׁand honey

    udevashH1706 →54 times

  • וְאָכַ֥לand it will eat

    veakhalH398 →810 times

  • וְשָׂבַ֖עand it will be satisfied

    vesava'H7646 →97 times

  • וְדָשֵׁ֑ןand it will grow fat

    vedashenH1878 →

  • וּפָנָ֞הand it will turn

    ufanahH6437 →135 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • אֱלֹהִ֤יםgods

    ʾelohimH430 →2601 times

  • אֲחֵרִים֙other

    ʾacherimH312 →166 times

  • וַעֲבָד֔וּםand they will serve them

    vaavadumH5647 →288 times

  • וְנִ֣אֲצ֔וּנִיand they will spurn me

    veniatzuniH5006 →

  • וְהֵפֵ֖רand it will break

    veheferH6565 →

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • בְּרִיתִֽי׃covenant my

    beritiH1285 →284 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 3:8

    I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 50:24

      Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac,…

    • Exodus 3:17

      And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

    • Genesis 15:18–21

      On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—

    • Exodus 13:5

      And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and…

    • Deuteronomy 1:25

      They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”

  • Through

    Jeremiah 5:28

    They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 1:23

      Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

    • Deuteronomy 32:15

      But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

  • Through

    Hosea 13:6

    When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 32:13–15

      He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Berean Standard Bible, Deuteronomy 32:15; Hebrew text, Deuteronomy 31:20; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.