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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Deuteronomy 8:4

These past 40 years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blessing;   Clothing;   Israel;   Obedience;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Desert, Journey of Israel through the;   Feet, the;   Garments;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Hospitality;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Deuteronomy, the Book of;   Manna;   Miracles;   Wilderness of the Wanderings;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Loan;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Deuteronomy;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Foot;   Swell;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - New-Year for Trees;   Wilderness, Wanderings in the;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Your clothing didn't grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.
King James Version
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Lexham English Bible
Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
English Standard Version
Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.
New Century Version
During these forty years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell.
New English Translation
Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these forty years.
Amplified Bible
"Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these forty years.
New American Standard Bible
"Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Thy raiment waxed not olde vpon thee, neither did thy foote swell those fourtie yeeres.
Legacy Standard Bible
Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
Contemporary English Version
Over the past forty years, your clothing hasn't worn out, and your feet haven't swollen.
Complete Jewish Bible
During these forty years the clothing you were wearing didn't grow old, and your feet didn't swell up.
Darby Translation
Thy clothing grew not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
George Lamsa Translation
Your clothes did not wear out upon you, neither did your feet go bare during these forty years.
Good News Translation
During these forty years your clothes have not worn out, nor have your feet swollen up.
Christian Standard Bible®
Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.
Literal Translation
Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thy clothes are not waxed olde vpon the, and thy fete are not swolle this fortye yeare.
American Standard Version
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Bible in Basic English
Through all these forty years your clothing did not get old or your feet become tired.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thy rayment waxed not olde vpon thee, neither dyd thy foote swell these fourtie yeres.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
King James Version (1611)
Thy raiment waxed not old vpon thee, neither did thy foote swell these fourtie yeeres.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Thy garments grew not old from off thee, thy shoes were not worn from off thee, thy feet were not painfully hardened, lo! these forty years.
English Revised Version
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Berean Standard Bible
Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thi cloth, bi which thou were hilid, failide not for eldnesse, and thi foot was not brokun undernethe, lo!
Young's Literal Translation
`Thy raiment hath not worn out from off thee, and thy foot hath not swelled these forty years,
Update Bible Version
Your raiment didn't wax old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.
Webster's Bible Translation
Thy raiment hath not become old upon thee, neither hath thy foot swelled these forty years.
World English Bible
Your clothing didn't grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.
New King James Version
Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
New Living Translation
For all these forty years your clothes didn't wear out, and your feet didn't blister or swell.
New Life Bible
Your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not get sore during these forty years.
New Revised Standard
The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Thy mantle, hath not fallen with age from off thee, and, thy foot, hath not become swollen, - these forty years.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thy raiment, with which thou wast covered, hath not decayed for age, and thy foot is not worn, lo this is the fortieth year,
Revised Standard Version
Your clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

Contextual Overview

1 "You must obey all the commands that I give you today, because then you will live and grow to become a great nation. You will get the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. 2 And you must remember the entire trip that the Lord your God has led you through these 40 years in the desert. He was testing you. He wanted to make you humble. He wanted to know what is in your heart. He wanted to know if you would obey his commands. 3 He humbled you and let you be hungry. Then he fed you with manna—something you did not know about before. It was something your ancestors had never seen. Why did the Lord do this? Because he wanted you to know that it is not just bread that keeps people alive. People's lives depend on what the Lord says. 4 These past 40 years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell. 5 You must remember that the Lord your God teaches and corrects you as a father teaches and corrects his son. 6 "You must obey the commands of the Lord your God. Follow him and respect him. 7 The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with rivers and pools of water. Water flows out of the ground in the valleys and hills. 8 It is a land with wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates. It is a land with olive oil and honey. 9 There you will have plenty of food and everything you need. It is a land where the rocks are iron. You can dig copper out of the hills.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Many have attempted to give the following meaning to this text - "God so amply provided for them all the necessaries of life, that they never were obliged to wear tattered garments, nor were their feet injured for lack of shoes or sandals." Now, though the Israelites doubtless brought out of Egypt more raiment than what they had upon them; and they might manufacture the fleeces of their flocks in the wilderness; and also might be favoured by Providence with other supplies from the neighbouring nations or travelling hordes of Arabs; yet, when we consider their immense numbers, their situation and long continuance in the wilderness, and the very strong expressions made use of in the text, why should we question the extraordinary and miraculous interposition of God in this respect, as well as in others, not less stupendous in their nature, or constant in their supply? Deuteronomy 29:5, Nehemiah 9:21, Matthew 26:25-30

Reciprocal: Joshua 5:6 - walked Acts 7:36 - and in the wilderness Philippians 4:19 - supply 1 Timothy 6:8 - General Hebrews 3:9 - forty

Cross-References

Genesis 8:17
Bring every living animal out of the boat with you—all the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. These animals will make many more animals, and they will fill the earth again."
Genesis 8:19
All the animals, everything that crawls, and every bird left the boat. All the animals came out of the boat in family groups.
2 Kings 19:37
One day Sennacherib was in the temple of his god Nisroch, worshiping him. His sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword and ran away to Ararat. So his son Esarhaddon became the new king of Assyria.
Isaiah 37:38
One day Sennacherib was in the temple of his god Nisroch, worshiping him. His sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword and ran away to Ararat. So Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon became the new king of Assyria.
Jeremiah 51:27
"Lift up the war flag in the land! Blow the trumpet in all the nations! Prepare the nations for war against Babylon. Call these kingdoms to come fight against Babylon: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Choose a commander to lead the army against her. Send so many horses that they are like a swarm of locusts.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, c] They wanted not clothes all the forty years they were in the wilderness which some account for by the rising generation being supplied with the clothes of those that died in the wilderness, and with the spoils they took from Amalek, Exodus 17:1 and others, as Aben Ezra observes, remark that they brought much clothes with them out of Egypt, which no doubt they did; see Exodus 12:35 and he adds, as worthy of notice, that the manna they lived upon did not produce sweat, which is prejudicial to clothes; but be it so, that they were sufficiently provided with clothes, it must be miraculous that these clothes they wore should not wax old. This, in a spiritual sense, may denote the righteousness of Christ, which is often compared to raiment, the property of which is, that it never waxes old, wears out, or decays; it is an everlasting righteousness, and will never be abolished, but will answer for the saints in a time to come; see Isaiah 51:6 neither did thy foot swell these forty years; or puff up like paste, as Jarchi explains it, which is often the case in long journeys; the Septuagint version is, "did not become callous"; a callousness or hardness is frequently produced by travelling; in

Deuteronomy 29:5 it is explained of the shoes on their feet not waxing old; so Ben Melech, and the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and the Syriac and Arabic versions here, "thy feet were not naked", were not without shoes; these were no more wore out by travel than their clothes upon their backs, and this was equally as miraculous: the Gibeonites, pretending to come from a far country, and to have travelled much and long, put on old garments and old shoes, to make it probable and plausible, Joshua 9:5. This may be an emblem of the perseverance of the saints in faith and holiness: shoes upon the feet denote a Gospel conversation, which is very beautiful, Song of Solomon 7:1 the feet of saints being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; which, as shoes to the feet, guides and directs the Christian walk, strengthens and makes fit for walking, keeps tight and preserves from slipping and falling, and protects from what is harmful, accompanied by the power and grace of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They had clothes, it would seem, in abundance (compare Exodus 12:34-35) at the beginning of the 40 years; and during those years they had many sheep and oxen, and so must have had much material for clothing always at command. No doubt also they carried on a traffic in these, as in other commodities, with the Moabites and the nomadic tribes of the desert. Such ordinary supplies must not be shut out of consideration, even if they were on occasions supplemented by extraordinary providences of God, as was undoubtedly the case with their food.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 8:4. Thy raiment waxed not old, c. — The plain meaning of this much-tortured text appears to me to be this: "God so amply provided for them all the necessaries of life, that they never were obliged to wear tattered garments, nor were their feet injured for lack of shoes or sandals." If they had carvers, engravers, silversmiths, and jewellers among them, as plainly appears from the account we have of the tabernacle and its utensils, is it to be wondered at if they also had habit and sandal makers, c., &c., as we are certain they had weavers, embroiderers, and such like? And the traffic which we may suppose they carried on with the Moabites, or with travelling hordes of Arabians, doubtless supplied them with the materials though, as they had abundance of sheep and neat cattle, they must have had much of the materials within themselves. It is generally supposed that God, by a miracle, preserved their clothes from wearing out: but if this sense be admitted, it will require, not one miracle, but a chain of the most successive and astonishing miracles ever wrought, to account for the thing for as there were not less than 600,000 males born in the wilderness, it would imply, that the clothes of the infant grew up with the increase of his body to manhood, which would require a miracle to be continually wrought on every thread, and on every particle of matter of which that thread was composed. And this is not all; it would imply that the clothes of the parent became miraculously lessened to fit the body of the child, with whose growth they were again to stretch and grow, &c. No such miraculous interference was necessary.


 
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