How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife?
Parallel Translations
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How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife?
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How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
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How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 1:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Corinthians 3:5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God,
- Numbers 11:11-15 Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’ Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
- Deuteronomy 1:9 I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone.
- 1 Kings 3:7-9 Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in. Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?”
- Psalms 89:19 Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, “I have given strength to the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.
- 2 Corinthians 2:16 to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
- Exodus 18:13-16 On the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, “What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?” Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Signifying how great a burden it is, to govern…
Signifying how great a burden it is, to govern the people.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 1:12 How can I myself alone bear your…
Deu 1:12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
Ver. 12. Hear your cumbrance.] A prince’s temples are not so compassed with a crown, as his mind besieged with cares; nor is he so lifted up with the splendour of his train, as cast down with the multitude of his fears. {See Trapp on "Deu 1:9"} St Paul also had the "cumber {a} of the churches." {2Co 11:28} All care cumbered and mustered together, and that with anxiety; with the same solicitude that a man hath about his own most important business.
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{a} επισυστασις, μεριμνα
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Your burden; the trouble of ruling and managing so…
Your burden; the trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people.
Your strife; either your quarrellings with God; or rather your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and…
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.
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Deuteronomy 1:13
deu 1:13
deu 1:13
deu 1:13Take ye wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes,.... Not only whose persons were well known, but their characters and qualifications, for their probity and integrity, for their wisdom and prudence in the management of affairs, for their skill and knowledge in things divine and human, civil and religious, and for their capacity in judging and determining matters in difference; see Exo 18:21.
and I will make them rulers over you; the people were allowed to choose their own officers, whom they were to bring to Moses, and present before him, to be invested with their office. A like method was taken in the choice and constitution of deacons in the Christian church, when the secular affairs of it lay too heavy upon the apostles, Act 6:3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Your burden - The trouble of ruling and managing…
Your burden - The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife - Your contentions among yourselves, for the determnination whereof the elders were appointed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 1:12-13. How can I alone bear your burden?…
Deu 1:12-13. How can I alone bear your burden? — The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife — Your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed. Take ye wise men and understanding — Persons of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Known among your tribes — Hebrew, to your tribes; men had in reputation for ability and integrity; for to such they would more readily submit.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. How] This emphatic Heb. form is found in…
12. How] This emphatic Heb. form is found in the Pent. only here, Deu_7:17, Deu_12:30, Deu_18:21, (Deu_32:30).
can I myself alone bear] See on Deu_1:9.
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your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife] Better the weight, the burden, and the strife of you. Weight cp. Isa_1:14, they are a weight upon me, I am weary of bearing. Is the use of the word here an echo of Isaiah? The Heb. ṭoraḥ is not found elsewhere in the O. T. Burden or carriage, cp. J, Num_11:11, the burden of all this people upon me, and 17. Strife; the Heb. rîb is used in JE of quarrels about wells and other physical struggles; but also of law-disputes, and of Israel’s contentiousness with Moses and God (E, Exo_17:2; Exo_17:7; J, Num_20:3; P, Num_20:13; and in the Song, Deu_33:8). In D four times for law-pleas. Here it is either the people’s litigiousness among themselves or their frequent contentions with Moses and God.
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 (12) Your cumbrance.—The original word is found only here…
(12) Your cumbrance.—The original word is found only here and in Isa_1:14 : “They are a trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them.”
Deu_1:13-15 recall very exactly what is said in Exodus 18
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 Moses appeals to the good sense of the people…
Moses appeals to the good sense of the people themselves: How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Cumbrance: this is a just rendering of the Hebrew word jr mo, from jrf which, though it occurs only in the Hiphil in Hebrew, in the sense of to cast down, (Job_17:11) probably was in use also in the Kal, in the sense of to lay upon, to encumber, which is the meaning of the cognate Arabic followed by. Burden (aV; from acn to lift up, to carry, to bear), something lifted up and carried, a load or burden. Strife: (byri) here, not mere contention, but litigation, suit-at-law. Some understand all these three, of troubles and burdens laid upon Moses, by his being called upon to compose differences, and adjust competing claims among the people. But other burdens besides these came upon him as the leader of the nation; and it seems best, therefore, to understand the first two of troubles and burdens generally.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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But how can I myself alone carry your loads, your burdens, and your disputes?
Moses uses a question to emphasize that he cannot solve all of their problems by himself. This rhetorical question can be translated as a statement. AT: "I cannot carry your loads, your burdens, and your disputes by myself." (See: Rhetorical Question)
carry your loads, your burdens
Moses speaks as if the people's problems and complaints that he needed to take care of were heavy physical objects that he had been carrying. AT: "take care of your problems, your complaints" (See: Metaphor)
your disputes
"your arguments" or "your disagreements"
men of good repute from each tribe
"men from each tribe whom the people of Israel respect"
translationWords
burden
wise
understand
tribe
head
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.