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.
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:
- 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.
- 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 46:27The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.
- 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 43:1–2The famine was severe in the land.
- Gen 31:20Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.
- Gen 31:24God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
- Gen 43:12and take double money in your hand, and take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight.
- Gen 45:7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.
- Gen 45:11There I will nourish you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have.”’
- Hos 12:12Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.
- Gen 24:4But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
- Isa 51:1–2“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
- Acts 7:15Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,
- Ps 105:23–24Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.
- Gen 25:20Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.
- Exod 1:5All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.
- Deut 7:7Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples:
- Gen 27:41Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. 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 afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Israel.
- Gen 31:40This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.
- Gen 46:1–7Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.
- Gen 47:27Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.
- Exod 1:7The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
- Gen 28:5Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah’s brother, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
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.