So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.
- KJV And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
- NKJV Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.
- NASB So your lives will be hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life.
- NLT Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive.
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
Their very lives will hang in constant doubt, gripped by fear day and night. Without God's assurance, existence becomes ceaseless insecurity.
Overview
Moses describes a life robbed of all certainty, where survival itself feels precarious. This dread is the opposite of the security God's covenant presence provides. The verse highlights how forsaking God strips away peace and assurance, and it points by contrast to the believer's confidence in Christ, who gives a peace the world cannot take away.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Lam 1:13He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.
- Rev 6:15–17Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
- Deut 28:67In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.
- Heb 10:27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 28:66 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.