Deuteronomy 2:7

Indeed, the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these forty years, and you have lacked nothing.

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — Moses addresses the generation standing in the plains of Moab, on the verge of entering Canaan, recounting the wilderness transit as a settled fact.

The words — יָדַע (yadaʿ, "he has known") is the verb the BSB renders "watched over," but its root sense is covenantal, personal knowledge — the same verb used of Adam "knowing" his wife (Gen 4:1).

The thread — Deuteronomy 8:2 and Nehemiah 9:21 both bind the forty years to divine sustenance; Nehemiah adds that their clothes did not wear out. Luke 22:35 echoes the "lacked nothing" claim in a different setting.

Why it lands — The verse is a verified record, not a forward promise: forty years, no lack, offered as evidence before the next step (crossing into Canaan). It asks the reader to weigh what they have actually received before deciding what they are owed.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
Nehemiah 9:21 For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
Luke 22:35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.
Deuteronomy 29:5 For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
Psalms 90:17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands—yes, establish the work of our hands!
Genesis 12:2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Genesis 24:35 “The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.
Job 23:10 Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
Psalms 31:7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul.
Genesis 26:12 Now Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,