He humbled you: as in verse 2.

Let you hunger: God did not always provide food for them. Good News Translation has “made you go hungry,” where “made” is the equivalent of humbled, referring back to “sending hardships” in verse 2. This is a possible model.

Fed you with manna: or “gave you manna to eat” (Good News Translation). See Exo 16; Num 11.7-8.

Which you did not know, nor did your fathers know: this can be joined into one statement, as Good News Translation has done; or else we can say “food that neither you nor your ancestors had ever heard about” (or, eaten). For fathers see 1.8.

He might make you know: they were meant to learn from these experiences. So Good News Translation “He did this to teach you.”

Man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD: in English this is needlessly wordy; see Good News Translation. In avoiding the exclusive “man,” New Revised Standard Version uses the impersonal “one does not live by bread alone,” which doesn’t sound right in the context. “People” is a better alternative. Instead of bread the word “food” should be used. The main lesson here is that it is not what a person can acquire by his or her own power that keeps that person alive and healthy, but obedience to God’s commands. And this does not apply only to individuals; it applies to the people as a whole, as God’s people.

An alternative model for the final part of this verse can be:

• God wanted to teach you that food alone is not enough to keep us [or, people] alive; to stay alive we need [or, everyone needs] everything that the LORD commands.

This statement is quoted by Jesus in Matt 4.4; Luke 4.4.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .