When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land,
Parallel translations
- WEB when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
- KJV When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.
- NKJV When they were few in number, Indeed very few, and strangers in it.
- NASB When they were only a few people in number, Very few, and strangers in it.
- NLT He said this when they were few in number, a tiny group of strangers in Canaan.
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
When the promise was given, they were few in number and foreigners in the land. God's great promise rested on a tiny, vulnerable family.
Overview
The psalmist recalls that the patriarchs were a small band of strangers in Canaan when God made His promise. The greatness of the pledge stood in stark contrast to their weakness. This shows that God's purposes rest on His power and faithfulness, not human strength, as supremely seen in the cross of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Deut 7:7The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
- Gen 34:30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
- Heb 11:9By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
- Gen 23:4“I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
- Deut 26:5and 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.
- Ezek 33:24–33“Son of man, those living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’
- Gen 17:8And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
- Acts 7:5He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.
- Heb 11:12And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Isa 51:2Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 105:12 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
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