Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you!
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Deuteronomy 1:10-11 sits inside this longer paragraph.
I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.”
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude.
Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you!
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The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
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the LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. —
The LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as He hath promised you! —
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Cross-references (20)
- Psalms 115:14 (v11) May Yahweh increase you more and more, you and your children.
- Genesis 22:17 (vv10–11) that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the…
- Numbers 6:27 (v11) “So they shall put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”
- Genesis 26:4 (v11) I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations…
- Genesis 15:5 (vv10–11) Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So…
Show all 17 cross-references
- Genesis 49:25 (v11) even by the God of your father, who will help you, by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the…
- 2 Samuel 24:3 (v11) Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord…
- Exodus 32:13 (vv10–11) Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring…
- Numbers 22:12 (v11) God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
- Deuteronomy 10:22 (v10) Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.
- Deuteronomy 28:62 (v10) You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s…
- 1 Chronicles 21:3 (v11) Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why…
- Genesis 28:14 (v10) Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the…
- Exodus 12:37 (v10) The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children.
- Numbers 1:46 (v10) all those who were counted were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.
- Nehemiah 9:23 (v10) You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that…
- 1 Chronicles 27:23 (v10) But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Yahweh had said he would increase Israel like the stars…
17 distinct cross-references across this passage (20 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (10 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v10 Not so much by the course of nature, as…
Not so much by the course of nature, as miraculously.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On v11 Deu 1:11 (The LORD God of your fathers make…
Deu 1:11 (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye [are], and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
Ver. 11. The Lord God of your fathers.] Such holy ejaculations, such sallies of soul, and egression of affection to God and his people, are frequently found in heavenly minded men.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–11 The Lord your God hath multiplied you,.... Which was…
The Lord your God hath multiplied you,.... Which was the reason why he could not bear them, or the government of them was too heavy for him, because they were so numerous, and the cases brought before him to decide were so many:
and, behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude; whereby it appeared that the promise to Abraham was fulfilled, Gen 15:5, they were now 600,000 men fit for war, besides women and children, and those under age, which must make the number of them very large.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v10 Verse 10. Ye are this day as the stars…
Verse 10. Ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.] This was the promise God made to Abraham, Ge 15:5-6; and Moses considers it now as amply fulfilled. But was it really so? Many suppose the expression to be hyperbolical; and others, no friends to revelation, think it a vain empty boast, because the stars, in their apprehension, amount to innumerable millions. Let us consider this subject. How many in number are the stars which appear to the naked eye? for it is by what appears to the naked eye we are to be governed in this business, for God brought Abraham forth abroad, i. e., out of doors, and bade him look towards heaven, not with a telescope, but with his naked eyes, Ge 15:5. Now I shall beg the objector to come forth abroad, and look up in the brightest and most favourable night, and count the stars-he need not be terrified at their abundance; the more they are, the more he can count; and I shall pledge myself to find a male Israelite in the very last census taken of this people, Num. xxvi., for every star he finds in the whole upper hemisphere of heaven. The truth is, only about 3,010 stars can be seen by the naked eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres; and the Israelites, independently of women and children, were at the above time more than 600,000. And suppose we even allow that, from the late discoveries of Dr. Herschel and others with telescopes which have magnified between 35 and 36,000 times, there may be 75 millions of stars visible by the help of such instruments, which is the highest calculation ever made, yet still the Divine word stands literally true: St. Matthew says, Mt 1:17, that the generations from Abraham to Christ were 42; now we find at the second census that the fighting men among the Hebrews amounted to 603,000; and the Israelites, who have never ceased to be a distinct people, have so multiplied as far to exceed the number of all the fixed stars taken together.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v11
CHAPTER I.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v10 ye are this day as the stars of heaven…
ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude--This was neither an Oriental hyperbole nor a mere empty boast. Abraham was told (Gen 15:5-6) to look to the stars, and though they "appear" innumerable, yet those seen by the naked eye amount, in reality, to no more than three thousand ten in both hemispheres. The Israelites already far exceeded that number, being at the last census above six hundred thousand [Num 26:51]. It was a seasonable memento, calculated to animate their faith in the accomplishment of other parts of the divine promise.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–11 10. the Lord your God] See on Deu_1:6.
10. the Lord your God] See on Deu_1:6.
as the stars in heaven] So Deu_10:22; Deu_28:62; and Gen_22:17; Gen_26:4; Exo_32:13, in contexts that otherwise betray the editorial hand. It is one of the many hyperboles in D and is not found in the parallel E, Exodus 18.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v11 (11) The Lord God of your fathers . .…
(11) The Lord God of your fathers . . . bless you.—This appears to belong distinctly to the Book of Deuteronomy. It can hardly be a record of what was spoken long before. It brings the living speaker before us in a way that precludes imitation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Notwithstanding the cruel oppression to which they were subjected…
Notwithstanding the cruel oppression to which they were subjected in Egypt, the Israelites had so increased in numbers that they went out of the house of their bondage a mighty host. Ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude (cf. Gen_15:5 Gen_22:17) God had promised to Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude; and Moses here reminds the people that this promise had been fulfilled. This is hardly to be regarded as the utterance of hyperbole. When God gave the premise to Abraham it was to the stars as seen by the patriarch, not as actually existing in the immensity of space, that reference was made; and as the number of stars which can be taken in with the naked eye does not exceed 3000, and as Israel at this time numbered more than 600, 000, counting only the adult males, (Num_2:32) it might be literally said of them that they had been multiplied as the stars of heaven. The comparison, however, imported nothing more than that their numbers were very great.
Vers. 10, 11. Israel"s increase.
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These verses embody the expression of a very natural state of feeling in contemplating the marvel of the Church"s growth.
I THE CHURCH"S INCREASE AN OBJECT OF DESIRE. "The Lord God of your fathers make you," etc. (ver. 11). Such increase is:
1. A token of Divine favor. (Act_11:24)
2. A manifestation of Divine power (1Co_1:18-30; Eph_1:19; 1Th_1:5)
3. A source of blessing to the world. (Ps 67)
4. A fulfillment of the Divine counsels. (Eph_1:10)
5. Means the ascendancy of true religion.
II THE CHURCH"S INCREASE AN OBJECT OF WONDER. (Ver. 10.) The rapid spread, the extraordinary victories, the prolonged empire, and the undecaying vitality of the Christian religion are the most wonderful things in history, and a proof of its Divine origin. As Israel increased by the Divine blessing at an unprecedented rate, and in spite of all Pharaoh"s attempts to check the increase, so has the Church flourished and spread, proving herself in her unarmed strength more than a match for the deadliest powers which can be arrayed against her. The present century has witnessed a remarkable revival of this propagative energy of Christianity. (Num_23:23)
III THE CHURCH"S INCREASE A MATTER OF PROMISE. (Ver. 11.) The promise to Abraham of a countless seed embraced in its widest import the spiritual, not less than the natural, Israel his seed in Christ. J.O. (Rom_4:16; Gal_3:7-10, Gal_3:14, Gal_3:16, Gal_3:26, Gal_3:29) (Cf. the promises Isa_53:10-12 Isa_54:1-3 Isa_60:1-12, with Dan_2:35, Dan_2:44; Mat_8:11 Rev_7:9)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 1:10 as numerous as the stars: This figure of…
1:10 as numerous as the stars: This figure of speech deliberately exaggerates for effect. Abraham’s descendants had not approached the actual number of stars in the universe, though they exceeded the number of stars visible to the naked eye. Moses meant that God had begun fulfilling his promises to Abraham (see Gen 15:5; 22:17) by making Israel numerous, bringing them to the Promised Land, and preparing them to conquer it.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.