Remember the Wilderness

"Thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee… And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna… that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years."

The land ahead is "a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey… a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." But "beware… lest when thou hast eaten and art full… thine heart be lifted up… And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth."

"Speak not thou in thine heart… For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land." Moses retells the golden calf: forty days and nights on the mountain, the tablets broken, forty more days face down before God pleading for the people, and for Aaron. God told him to cut two new tablets; he put them in an ark of acacia wood. The Levites were set apart to carry the ark.

"And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him… Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart… For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords… which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger… Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

The seven foods of the land

Wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and "honey" (probably date or fig syrup, though bee honey was also known) became known in Jewish tradition as the seven species. All are well attested in the archaeology of the southern Levant: charred grain, olive pits, grape seeds and fig remains from Bronze and Iron Age sites, and the 10th-century BC Gezer Calendar lists the farmer's months by harvest. An industrial apiary with about 30 intact beehives was excavated at Tel Rehov (10th–9th century BC). "Stones are iron… brass [copper]" fits the copper of the Arabah, at Timna and Faynan.

"Not by bread only"

Jesus answered the tempter with 8:3 after forty days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4): the wilderness of Israel's forty years becomes the setting of his own test, and he answers each temptation from Deuteronomy (8:3; 6:16; 6:13).

Two routes, one death

Deuteronomy 10:6–7 includes a short travel note: from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, "there Aaron died, and there he was buried," then to Gudgodah and Jotbath. Numbers 33 has the same names in a different order and places Aaron's death at Mount Hor. These are two traditions within the Bible; they are not manuscript differences, and the note may be a fragment of a different itinerary.