Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.
Parallel translations
- WEB Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
- KJV Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
- NKJV “Rememberthe days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you:
- NASB “Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you.
- NLT Remember the days of long ago; think about the generations past. Ask your father, and he will inform you. Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.
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 calls the people to remember the days of old and learn from previous generations through their fathers and elders. It matters because faithful memory of God's past dealings shapes present obedience.
Overview
Recalling history and consulting elders were means of preserving the knowledge of God's acts. Israel's identity and obligations rest on what God has done, which must be deliberately remembered and taught. This emphasis on remembering God's mighty works continues in the church, which proclaims and remembers the saving work of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 78:3–4that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.
- Ps 44:1For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.
- Job 8:8–10Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers.
- Ps 77:5–6I considered the days of old, the years long in the past.
- Isa 46:9Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
- Deut 4:32Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?
- Exod 13:14In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Isa 63:11Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses. Where is He who brought them through the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is the One who set His Holy Spirit among them,
- Judg 6:13“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
- Ps 77:11–12I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.
- Ps 119:52I remember Your judgments of old, O LORD, and in them I find comfort.
- Ps 77:8Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time?
- Ps 10:6He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”
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 32:7 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.