and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
- KJV And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
- ESV “And you shall make response before the LORD your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
- NKJV And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
- NASB And you shall respond and say before the Lord your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and resided there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
- NLT “You must then say in the presence of the Lord your God, ‘My ancestor Jacob was a wandering Aramean who went to live as a foreigner in Egypt. His family arrived few in number, but in Egypt they became a large and mighty nation.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
The worshiper recites Israel's history: a wandering ancestor who went to Egypt and grew into a great nation. Worship rehearses God's mighty work in making a people from nothing.
Overview
This confession traces Israel back to a humble, perishing forefather (likely Jacob) and the small clan that became a populous nation in Egypt. It reminds the worshiper that the nation's existence is entirely God's doing. Such grateful remembrance grounds present worship in past grace, the same pattern by which believers recall their helpless estate before God's saving mercy in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Gen 46:27And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.
- Deut 10:22Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Gen 43:1–2Now the famine was still severe in the land.
- Gen 31:20Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
- Gen 31:24But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
- Gen 43:12Take double the silver with you so that you may return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake.
- Gen 45:7God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
- Gen 45:11And there I will provide for you, because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you and your household and everything you own will come to destitution.’
- Hos 12:12Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife—for a wife he tended sheep.
- Gen 24:4but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”
- Isa 51:1–2“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.
- Acts 7:15So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.
- Ps 105:23–24Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.
- Gen 25:20and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
- Exod 1:5The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.
- Deut 7:7The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
- Gen 27:41Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
- Exod 1:12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
- Gen 31:40As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
- Gen 46:1–7So Israel set out with all that he had, and when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
- Gen 47:27Now the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and became fruitful and increased greatly in number.
- Exod 1:7but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
- Gen 28:5So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 26:5 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.