Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ¹  has brought you these forty years through the desert ²  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 8:15

8:15 and who brought you through the great, fearful desert of venomous serpents ³  and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow ⁴  from a flint rock and

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¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

³ tn Heb “flaming serpents”; KJV, NASB “fiery serpents”; NAB “saraph serpents.” This figure of speech (metonymy) probably describes the venomous and painful results of snakebite. The feeling from such an experience would be like a burning fire (שָׂרָף, saraf).

⁴ tn Heb “the one who brought out for you water.” In the Hebrew text this continues the preceding sentence, but the translation begins a new sentence here for stylistic reasons.