May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over and bless you as He has promised.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!
- KJV (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
- NKJV May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!
- NASB May the Lord, the God of your fathers increase you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you, just as He has promised you!
- NLT And may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as he promised!
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
Moses prays that God would multiply Israel a thousandfold and bless them as He promised. He desires more of God's blessing, not relief from a large people.
Overview
Even while acknowledging the burden of numbers, Moses turns immediately to blessing, asking God to increase Israel a thousand times over. His pastoral heart wants the people to flourish under God's promised favor. This blessing-seeking posture reflects God's own generous purposes for His people and looks ahead to the abundant, multiplying life found in Christ, who came that His people might have life to the full.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 115:14May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
- Gen 22:17I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- Num 6:27So they shall put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
- Gen 26:4I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
- Gen 49:25by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.
- 2 Sam 24:3But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
- Gen 15:5And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Exod 32:13Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
- Num 22:12But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
- 1 Chr 21:3But Joab replied, “May the LORD multiply His troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all servants of my lord? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 1:11 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.