The Lord your God has increased your population, making you as numerous as the stars!
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude.
- KJV The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
- BSB The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- NKJV The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude.
- NASB The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God had multiplied Israel until they were as numerous as the stars. This shows God's faithfulness to His promise to Abraham of countless descendants.
Overview
The 'stars of the sky' imagery deliberately echoes God's covenant promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:5), declaring that promise visibly fulfilled. Israel's vast numbers testify to God's reliability across generations. This growth, far from being merely a leadership problem, is presented as evidence of divine blessing, and it anticipates the innumerable multitude of Abraham's spiritual offspring gathered through Christ from every nation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gen 15:5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your offspring be.”
- Deut 10:22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.
- Gen 22:17that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.
- Exod 32:13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
- Deut 28:62You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.
- Gen 28:14Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed.
- Num 1:46even all those who were counted were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.
- Exod 12:37The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children.
- Neh 9:23You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
- 1 Chr 27:23But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Yahweh had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky.
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 1:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.