Deuteronomy 8:9

_A LAND WHEREIN THOU SHALT EAT BREAD WITHOUT SCARCENESS, THOU SHALT NOT LACK ANY THING IN IT; A LAND WHOSE STONES ARE IRON, AND OUT OF WHOSE HILLS THOU MAYEST DIG BRASS._ A land whose stones are iron. The abundance of this metal in Palestine, especially among the mountains of Lebanon, those of Kesraoun, in the ferruginous basalt rocks of the Hauran, and elsewhere (cf. Numbers 31:22), is attested not only by Josephus, but by Volney (Deuteronomy 1:21), Buckingham, and other travelers (Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p. 131; Wilson's 'Lands,' 2:, p. 603). BRASS - not the alloy brass, but the ore of copper. Although the mines may now be exhausted or neglected, they yielded plenty of those meals anciently ...

1-9 Obedience must be, 1. Careful, observe to do; 2. Universal, to do all the commandments; and 3. From a good principle, with a regard to God as the Lord, and their God, and with a holy fear of him. To engage them to this obedience. Moses directs them to look back. It is good to remember all the ways, both of God's providence and grace, by which he has led us through this wilderness, that we may cheerfully serve him and trust in him. They must remember the straits they were sometimes brought into, for mortifying their pride, and manifesting their perverseness; to prove them, that they and others might know all that was in their heart, and that all might see that God chose them, not for any thing in them which might recommend them to his favour. They must remember the miraculous supplies of food and raiment granted them. Let none of God's children distrust their Father, nor take any sin...

Verse Deuteronomy 8:9. _A LAND WHOSE STONES ARE IRON_] Not only meaning that there were iron mines throughout the land, but that the loose stones were strongly impregnated with iron, ores of this metal (the most useful of all the products of the _mineral_ kingdom) being every where in great plenty. _OUT OF WHOSE HILLS THOU MAYEST DIG BRASS._] As there is no such thing in nature as a _brass_ mine, the word נחשת _nechosheth_ should be translated _copper_; of which, by the addition of the _lapis_ _calaminaris, brass_ is made. Exodus 25:3....

See Exodus 3:8 note, and the contrast expressed in Deuteronomy 11:10, between Palestine and Egypt. The physical characteristics and advantages of a country like Palestine must have been quite strange to Israel at the time Moses was speaking: compare Deuteronomy 3:25 note. To have praised the fertility and excellence of the promised land at an earlier period would have increased the murmurings and impatience of the people at being detained in the wilderness: whereas now it encouraged them to encounter with more cheerfulness the opposition that they would meet from the inhabitants of Canaan....

EXPOSITION FURTHER EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE, ENFORCED BY A REVIEW OF GOD'S DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS. DEUTERONOMY 8:1 That they might be induced the more faithfully to observe all the commandments which had been enjoined upon them so as to go on and prosper, they are called to remember the experiences of the forty years in the wilderness, when God guided them and disciplined them for their good. He humbled them that he might test the state of their heart and affections towards him, using the distress and privations to which they were subjected as means of bringing out what was in

A LAND WHEREIN THOU SHALL EAT BREAD WITHOUT SCARCENESS,.... That is, should have plenty of all sorts of provisions, which bread is often put for: THOU SHALL NOT LACK ANYTHING IN IT; for necessity and convenience, and for delight and pleasure: A LAND WHOSE STONES ARE IRON; in which were iron mines: AND OUT OF WHOSE HILLS THOU MAYEST DIG BRASS; both which are taken out of the earth and the stones of it, Job 28:2 and were to be found in the land of Canaan, and particularly in the tribe of Asher, as seems from Deuteronomy 33:25 and more particularly at Sidon and Sarepta, which were in that tribe; the latter of which seems to have its name from the melting of metals there, and the former is said in Homer t to abound with brass. t εκ μεν σιδ

4. THOU SHALT REMEMBER! PROVISION AND WARNING CHAPTER 8 _ 1. Remember the forty years and Jehovah's care (Deuteronomy 8:1)_ 2. The gracious provision in the land (Deuteronomy 8:7) 3. Warning against forgetting Jehovah (Deuteronomy 8:11) Admonition to obedience begins this chapter. Disobedience and what will result from it closes it. Between the first and last verses we find extremely precious words. They are called upon to remember the experiences of the wilderness. It was Jehovah, who led them and watched over them. The wilderness experience was made a blessing to them. It taught them the blessed lessons of humility and brought out all that was in their hearts. And

DEUTERONOMY 8. Israel's duty to be faithful and obedient to Yahweh enforced by a recital of His loving treatment of them in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:1). Unless they are faithful they will perish as the Canaanites did (Deuteronomy 8:18). Deuteronomy 8:2. prove: Deuteronomy 6:16 * (tempt, same Heb. verb). Deuteronomy 8:3. manna: Exodus 16:14;...

SCARCENESS. Hebrew. _miskenuth =_ poverty, misery; occurs only here. BRASS. bronze, or copper....

_without scarceness_ The noun is found only here, and its adj. thrice only in the late Ecclesiastes 4:13; Ecclesiastes 9:15 f.; cp. Isaiah 40:20. Scarcity of bread is a great curse of the desert nomads: some tribes taste it but once a month, others not so often, and it is regarded as a luxury (Robinson, _Bib. Res_. ii. 497, cp. i. 197 f., Musil, _Arabia Petr_. iii. -Ethnolog. Reisebericht," 148). Their hunger for it is a frequent cause of their raids on the fellahin (for an instance see von Oppenheim, _Vom Mittelmeer zum Pers. Golf_, i. 269). _whose stones are iron_ Whether _iron_here means basalt as in...