“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’
Parallel translations
- WEB If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”
- KJV If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
- BSB You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”
- NKJV “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’—
- NLT Perhaps you will think to yourselves, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’
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
Israel may feel the nations are too many to dispossess. Moses anticipates fear in the face of a daunting task.
Overview
Moses gives voice to the heart's natural doubt when confronting a stronger enemy. Rather than rebuke the fear outright, he prepares to redirect it to faith in God. This honest acknowledgment sets up a call to remember God's past faithfulness as the cure for present anxiety.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Num 33:53You shall take possession of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it.
- Num 13:32They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.
- Josh 17:16–18The children of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.”
- Deut 18:21You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?”
- Isa 49:21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”
- Isa 14:13You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
- Deut 15:9Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand”; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you.
- Deut 8:17and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.”
- Luke 9:47Jesus, perceiving the reasoning of their hearts, took a little child, and set him by his side,
- Isa 47:8“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children.’
- Jer 13:22If you say in your heart, “Why are these things come on me?” For the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.
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 7:17 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.