Deuteronomy 8:2

thou shall remember all the way Another of the many calls in D to remember God's Providence (Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 7:18, etc.), but this time to fresh aspects of that Providence, cp. Deuteronomy 29:5.

forty years in the wilderness See on Deuteronomy 2:7.

humble thee, to prove thee Cp. Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 8:16, Deuteronomy 13:3. On prove(whether as here of man by God, or of God by man) see on Deuteronomy 4:34, and Driver's note on Exodus 17:2 (E). J also speaks of the manna as God's proof of Israel. Exodus 16:4.

to know what was in thine heart Cp. Deuteronomy 13:3 (4), and note on Deuteronomy 7:9.

whether thou wouldest keep his commandments Steuernagel's argument, that because the law was not yet given at the time of the provings described, therefore this clause must be regarded as a later addition, is quite insufficient. For either we may take it as implying some previous charges by God to Israel, without which Israel could not have set out in the wilderness (so Bertholet); or better, we may take these trials as of the people's personal confidence in Jehovah and anticipatory to His entrusting them with His laws. Cp. Exodus 16:4, J.