כל המצוה, ”Every commandment,” Moses refers especially to the commandment not to covet the gold of the idolatries mentioned in verse 25 of the previous chapter.

וזכרת את כל הדרך, “you will remember the whole trek;” if your heart urges you to covet the gold and silver which are part of the idols of these nations, I remind you of the last 40 years in the desert when you had no need for, nor even use for gold and silver;

למען ענותך, “in order to test you to see if you would revolt.

התשמור מצותיו אם לא “if you would observe His commandments or not.” Actually the term נסיין in the sense of a “test,” that could be passed or failed, does not exist in G-d’s vocabulary, seeing that He knows the result of the “test” in advance, being omniscient. G-d employs such “tests” in order to demonstrate to the attribute of justice as well as to the attribute of mercy the true nature of the Jewish people, as I have explained in my commentary on Exodus 16,4.

ויענך “He afflicted you,” on the way, as in Psalms 102,24: ענה בדרך כחי, “He drained my strength while I was on the way.”

וירעבך, “He starved you;” by not giving you more manna than enough for one day at a time. We have a principle that it is not possible to compare the state of mind of people who have a supply of food in their travel bag with those who, even though not hungry, do not have such a supply to fall back on.(Talmud, tractate Yuma folio 74) An alternate interpretation of the last phrase: וירעיבך, if G-d would have provided you with manna while you still had supplies of regular food which you took out of Egypt with you, you would not even have bothered to taste it in order to see if you liked it. This is why He waited until you were hungry, after having exhausted your supplies. You then had no option but to eat what G-d had provided for you. Seeing that this was something totally unknown to you or to your forefathers, G-d had to “starve” you in order to have you accept His food. [We know how often the people treated the manna as something lacking substance, and they even dubbed it as לחם הקלקל,” (Numbers 21,5). Ed,]

שמלתך לא בלתה, “your garments did not wear out;” this is relevant to chapter 7 verse 25, where matters you should not covet have been discussed. Although you have travelled a long distance in the desert, for almost forty years, G-d has made certain that your clothing did not need replacing. When you observe G-d’s commandments, you will not need all the things that ordinary people require in order to live on this earth comfortably. If He was able to look after you in an uninhabitable desert, how much more so can He look after you in habitable areas of the earth.

ה' אלוקיך מיסרך, “the Lord your G-d chastens you. By not providing you with a food supply sufficient for a week or even longer, so that you will be afraid to rebel against Him for fear He might withhold your food, He has succeeded in making you a chastened nation.” Only the feeling that one can exist independently of G-d results in one’s rebelling against the Torah laws. He has taught you to be dependent on His largesse daily.

כי ה׳ אלוקיך מביאך, “for the Lord your G-d is about to bring you to a good land;” seeing it provides your needs in abundance, there is a danger that you might forget Him and imagine that you can manage on your own.

יוצאים בבקעה ובהר, “springing forth both in the valleys and in the mountainous regions.” This makes it unnecessary for the people dwelling in the mountainous regions to have to descend to the valleys in order to secure their needs, i.e. their water supply.

לא תחסר כל בה, “you shall not lack for anything in it.” Whatever grows in that land will grow in abundance.

ואכלת ושבעת וגו׳, “you will eat and be satisfied;” this verse is the one from which the sages derived the first three blessings in the prayer known as ברכת המזון, saying grace after meals. The three pertinent words are: ואכלת ושבעת וברכת “when you have eaten and been satisfied you are to say grace.” The first blessing concludes with the words: הזן את הכל. “He Who gives food to all.” The word את in the line: את ה׳ אלוקיך; this is a reference to the owner of the house in which you have consumed this food, i.e. your host.

על הארץ, “for the land; this is a reference to the paragraph in our grace which commences with the words: נודה לך, “let us give thanks to You.”

הטובה אשר נתן לך, “the good one that He gave to you.” This is a reference to the third paragraph in which we ask G-d to rebuild Jerusalem, compare Talmud tractate Sotah folio 5. After a person has sated himself, and is revolted by seeing more food, he is obligated to pronounce these benedictions. If this is so, it follows automatically, without having to be spelled out, that when he is hungry and sits down to a meal that he will bless the Lord Who has provided it directly or indirectly. He does so by reciting the blessing concluding with the words: המוציא לחם מן הארץ, “Who has caused the earth to produce “bread,” i.e. food.

ואכלת ושבעת וברכת, “these words are also a hint that when three people share a meal, they add an additional blessing to Hashem, זימון.

ורם לבבך ושכחת, “and your heart feels superior, as a result of which you will forget” (the Lord and His largesse). Moses had warned against such a phenomenon already in verse 11. The phenomenon of becoming haughty is tragically all too common.