Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 31:20
When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses speaks to the Israelites on the plains of Moab, concluding his covenant instructions by warning that a recorded song will testify against them after they enter the promised territory.
The words — nishba'ti (I swore) and zavat (flowing) frame the verse’s conditional structure, marking the divine oath and the land’s fertility that precede the predicted rebellion.
The thread — The text’s sequence of blessing followed by apostasy runs directly into Hosea 13:6, where satisfaction breeds pride, and parallels the land promises in Deuteronomy 6:10 and Nehemiah 9:25.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge that material prosperity does not guarantee covenant loyalty, but instead exposes the human inclination to abandon God when comfortable.
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 when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.
Cross-references
- Hosea 13:6 When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.
- Deuteronomy 6:10 And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,
- Nehemiah 9:25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness.
- Exodus 3:8 I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- Jeremiah 5:28 They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.
- Ezekiel 34:16 I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’
- Ezekiel 34:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
- Exodus 3:17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
- Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
- Deuteronomy 8:7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;