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:
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 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 the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
- Deut 10:22Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.
- Gen 43:1–2And the famine was sore in the land.
- Gen 31:20And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.
- Gen 31:24And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
- Gen 43:12And take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight:
- Gen 45:7And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
- Gen 45:11And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.
- Hos 12:12And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
- Gen 24:4But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
- Isa 51:1–2Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
- Acts 7:15So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
- Ps 105:23–24Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
- Gen 25:20And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
- Exod 1:5And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
- Deut 7:7The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
- Gen 27:41And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
- Exod 1:12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
- Gen 31:40Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
- Gen 46:1–7And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
- Gen 47:27And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
- Exod 1:7And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
- Gen 28:5And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 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.