You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
Parallel Translations
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You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
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And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
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And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God: 'A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (1)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 26:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 46:27 The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.
- Deuteronomy 10:22 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.
- Genesis 31:20 Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.
- Genesis 43:1-2 The famine was severe in the land. When they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.”
- Genesis 31:24 God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
- Genesis 43:12 and take double money in your hand, and take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight.
- Genesis 45:7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.
- Genesis 45:11 There I will provide for you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have.” ’
- Genesis 24:4 But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
- Genesis 25:20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.
- Psalms 105:23-24 Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham. He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.
- Isaiah 51:1-2 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many.
- Hosea 12:12 Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.
- Acts 7:15 Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, himself and our fathers,
- Genesis 27:41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
- Genesis 28:5 Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
- Genesis 31:40 This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.
- Genesis 46:1-7 Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph’s hand will close your eyes.” Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt—Jacob, and all his offspring with him, his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and he brought all his offspring with him into Egypt.
- Genesis 47:27 Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.
- Exodus 1:5 All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.
- Exodus 1:7 The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
- Exodus 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel.
- Deuteronomy 7:7 Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, Jacob, who served 20 years in Syria.
Meaning, Jacob, who served 20 years in Syria.
Only by God’s mercy, and not by their fathers’ deservings.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 26:5 And thou shalt speak and say before…
Deu 26:5 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish [was] my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
Ver. 5. A Syrian ready to perish.] Jacob, whose original was from Haran in Syria, {Gen 11:31} and whose abode had been with Laban the Syrian, in much poverty, affliction, and misery. {Hos 12:12} How low and mean were we of this nation at first! Brith signifies blue-coloured, sc., with woad: hence we were called Britons. Instead of fine clothes our ancestors dyed their skins, and painted upon them sundry sorts of birds and beasts: for food they had barks of trees, &c. This should never be forgotten.
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And became there a nation.] Consider we likewise what we were by nature, and should have been; what we are by grace, and shall be; and then take we up that most modest speech of that noble Athenian captain, Iphicrates, in the midst of all his glory, εξ οιων εις οια; {a} from how great baseness and misery, to what great blessedness and glory are we advanced; being "raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" {Eph 2:9; Eph 2:11-13} {See Trapp on "Eph 2:11"} {See Trapp on "Eph 2:12"} {See Trapp on "Eph 2:13"} What was there in us, said Tamerlane to Bajazet the great Turk, now his prisoner, that God should set us over two great empires of Turks and Tartars, to command many more worthy than ourselves, you being blind of one eye, and I lame of a leg, &c.? {b} Peter Martyr told Queen Elizabeth in an epistle, that princes must be doubly thankful to God: (1.) As men; (2.) As eminent men, exalted above others. So must all God’s servants, who being his firstborn, are in that respect "higher than the kings of the earth," {Psa 89:27} and being "the firstfruits of his revenue," are therefore "holiness to the Lord." {Jer 2:3}
{a} Arist., Rhetor., lib, v. cap. 9.
{b} Leonclav., Annal. Turc.
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 Jacob was a
Jacob was a
Syrian, partly, by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were Abraham and Rebekah, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria largely so called, as is confessed by Strabo, b. 16. and by Pliny, b. 5. c. 12; partly, by his education and conversation, for which reason Christ is called a Nazarene, and a Capernaite; and partly, by his relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mothers. Ready to perish; either through want and poverty; see Gen 28:11,20; 32:10; or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery and cruelty of his father-in-law Laban.
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 And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord…
And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God,.... Speak with a loud voice, lifting up the voice, as Jarchi interprets it; or "answer" (e), to the question the priest will ask, saying, what is this thou hast brought? as Aben Ezra remarks; and this being said in the tabernacle, and before the priest of the Lord, and as in the presence of the Lord, is represented as said before him, which is as follows:
a Syrian ready to perish was my father; meaning Jacob, who though born in Canaan, his mother was a Syrian, and his grandfather Abraham was of Chaldea, a part of Syria; and Jacob married two wives in Syria, and all his children were born there but Benjamin, and where he lived twenty years; and sometimes persons are denominated, as from the place of their birth, so from the place of their dwelling, as Christ was called a Nazarene from Nazareth, where he dwelt, though he was born at Bethlehem, Mat 2:23; and Jether, though an Israelite, as Aben Ezra observes, is called an Ishmaelite, perhaps because he dwelt some time among that people, Ch1 2:17. Now Jacob might be said to be ready to perish when he fled for his life from his brother Esau, and was poor and penniless when he came to Laban; so the last mentioned writer interprets this phrase; to which may be added, that when in his service he was exposed to cold and heat, and had his wages frequently changed, and afterwards, when obliged to flee from Laban, was pursued by him with an intention to do him mischief, had not the Lord prevented him. The reason of this part of the confession was to show that it was not owing to the greatness of their ancestors from whence they sprung, whose condition was mean, but to the gift of God, and his goodness, that they enjoyed the land of Canaan. So every sensible soul, when he brings his sacrifice of praise to God for his mercies, especially spiritual ones, frankly acknowledges his lost perishing condition by nature, of which he is sensible; and that in order to magnify the riches of the grace of God in his salvation, to endear Christ as a Saviour the more, and to keep humble, and make thankful:
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and he went down into Egypt; not directly, but some years after his former afflicted circumstances; so the Targum of Jonathan expresses it,"after these things he went down into Egypt;''after he had been in perishing circumstances in Syria, and when he was sore pressed with famine in Canaan:
and sojourned there with a few; with seventy souls, as Jarchi:
and became there a great nation, mighty and populous; insomuch that the king of Egypt was jealous of them, lest through their strength and numbers they should get away from them, when any favourable incident happened; they being when they came out from thence six hundred thousand men able to bear arms, besides women and children.
(e) "et respondebis", Montanus, Vatablus; "et respondens dices", Munster.
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 A Syrian - So Jacob was, partly by his…
A Syrian - So Jacob was, partly by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were Abraham and Rebecca, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria largely so called, partly by his education and conversation; and partly by his relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mother's. Ready to perish - Either through want and poverty; (See Gen. xxviii, 11, 20; xxxii, 10,) or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery of his father-in-law Laban.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. A Syrian ready to perish was my…
Verse 5. A Syrian ready to perish was my father] This passage has been variously understood, both by the ancient versions and by modern commentators. The Vulgate renders it thus: Syrus persequebatur patrem meum, "A Syrian persecuted my father." The Septuagint thus: Συριαν απεβαλεν ὁ πατηρ μου, "My father abandoned Syria." The Targum thus: לבן ארמאה בעא לאובדא ית אבא Laban arammaah bea leobada yath abba, "Laban the Syrian endeavoured to destroy my father." The Syriac: "My father was led out of Syria into Egypt." The Arabic: "Surely, Laban the Syrian had almost destroyed my father." The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel: "Our father Jacob went at first into Syria of Mesopotamia, and Laban sought to destroy him."
Father Houbigant dissents from all, and renders the original thus: Fames urgebat patrem meum, qui in AEgyptum descendit, "Famine oppressed my father, who went down into Egypt." This interpretation Houbigant gives the text, by taking the י yod from the word ארמי arammi, which signifies an Aramite or Syrian, and joining it to יאבד yeabud, the future for the perfect, which is common enough in Hebrew, and which may signify constrained; and seeking for the meaning of ארם aram in the Arabic [Arabic] arama, which signifies famine, dearth, &c., he thus makes out his version, and this version he defends at large in his notes. It is pretty evident, from the text, that by a Syrian we are to understand Jacob, so called from his long residence in Syria with his father-in-law Laban. And his being ready to perish may signify the hard usage and severe labour he had in Laban's service, by which, as his health was much impaired, so his life might have often been in imminent danger.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 26:5. A Syrian was my father — That…
Deu 26:5. A Syrian was my father — That is, Jacob; for though born in Canaan, he was a Syrian by descent, his mother Rebecca, and his grandfather Abraham, being both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which in Scripture is comprehended under the name of Syria. His wives and children, by their mothers’ side, and his relations, were Syrians, and he himself had lived twenty years in Syria with Laban. Ready to perish — Through want and poverty, or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery of his father-in-law Laban: see Gen 28:11; Gen 28:20; Gen 32:10.
Or perhaps this refers to the state of Jacob a little before he went down into Egypt, when he and his family were in danger of perishing by famine, had he not been sustained by his son.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain A Syrian ready to perish was my father -…
A Syrian ready to perish was my father - The reference is shown by the context to be to Jacob, as the ancestor in whom particularly the family of Abraham began to develop into a nation (compare Isa 43:22, Isa 43:28, etc.). Jacob is called a Syrian (literally, Aramaean), not only because of his own long residence in Syria with Laban Gen. 29–31, as our Lord was called a Nazarene because of his residence at Nazareth Mat 2:23, but because he there married and had his children (compare Hos 12:12); and might be said accordingly to belong to that more than to any other land.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The Syrian. Laban. See Genesis xxvii. (Challoner) --- Hebrew,…
The Syrian. Laban. See Genesis xxvii. (Challoner) --- Hebrew, "My father was a Syrian, poor, (or ready to perish) and he went down," &c. The ancestors of Jacob had, in effect, come from beyond the Euphrates, and he had dwelt in Mesopotamia for twenty years. But the translation of the Septuagint seems preferable, "My father abandoned (apebalen) Syria." (Calmet)
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 thou shalt say . . . A Syrian ready…
thou shalt say . . . A Syrian ready to perish was my father--rather, "a wandering Syrian." The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomad shepherds, either Syrians by birth as Abraham, or by long residence as Jacob. When they were established as a nation in the possession of the promised land, they were indebted to God's unmerited goodness for their distinguished privileges, and in token of gratitude they brought this basket of first-fruits.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. A Syrian ready to perish — Rather, a…
5. A Syrian ready to perish — Rather, a wandering Syrian. Jacob is here referred to. He is called an Aramaean, or Syrian. For in Aramaea he lived for a long period. Here he served Laban. Here he married his wives. Here most of his children were born.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. answer] testify, as in Deu_5:20, Deu_19:16; Deu_19:18, Deu_21:7,…
5. answer] testify, as in Deu_5:20, Deu_19:16; Deu_19:18, Deu_21:7, Deu_25:9.
A nomad Aramean was my father] Jacob-Israel, the son of an Aramean (Gen_24:10, cp. Deu_24:4), himself a nomad shepherd in Aram (Hos_12:12, Genesis 29-31), with Aramean mothers to his children. EVV. ready to perish and R.V. marg. wandering or lost are all possible transl. of the Heb. ’ôbed, used of lost or ‘wandered’ beasts, Deu_22:3, 1Sa_9:3; 1Sa_9:20, Eze_34:4; Eze_34:16, Psa_119:176; and of men perishing, Deu_4:26, Deu_7:20, Deu_8:19 f., Deu_28:20, 2Sa_1:27, Job_6:18 and frequently. Here no doubt intended to mark the nomad origins of Israel in contrast to their present state as cultivators of their own land.
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Dillm. ‘verlorner oder verkommender,’ Dri. ‘ready to perish,’ Steuern. ‘dem Untergang naher,’ Berth. ‘dem Untergang zugehend,’ Marti, ‘umherirrender.’ The LXX, at a time when Aramean = heathen, avoided such a reproach to Israel by differently dividing the two words (’Aram yo’bed) and producing the renderings ‘threw off’ or ‘lost’ and ‘forsook’ or ‘recovered (!) Syria’: Συρίαν ἀπέβαλεν (LXX B), ἀπέλιπεν (N, etc.), ἀπέλαβεν (A, F).
went down] So always from Palestine to Egypt, e.g. JE, Num_20:15.
sojourned] Was a gçr, cp. Deu_23:7 (8).
few in number] Deu_10:22.
great, and mighty, and populous] So Sam., Vulg., etc. J, Exo_1:9, more and mightier than we (Egyptians), 12, 20, multiplied, waxed mighty.
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A Syrian ready to perish was my father. The…
A Syrian ready to perish was my father. The reference is to Jacob, the stem-father of the twelve tribes, tie is here called a Syrian, or Aramaean, because of his long residence in Mesopotamia (Genesis 29-31), whence Abraham had originally come, (Gen_11:31) and because there the family of which he was the head was founded. The translation "ready to perish" fairly represents the Hebrew; the verb dba means not merely to stray or wander, but also to lose one"s self, to perish, to be in danger of perishing. (cf. Deu_4:26; Job_29:13; Pro_31:6, etc.) Different renderings of this clause have been given. The Targum, Vulgate, Luther, etc., have, "The Aramaean (i.e . Laban) oppressed my father;" The LXX, Surian ajpelipen oJ pathr mou ("My father left Syria"); others, "To the Aramaean my father wandered." But these either follow another reading than that of the received text, or they are expedients to soften down the apparent ignominy of the description. The probable allusion to the wandering, nomadic life of the patriarch, however, is not to be lost sight of. With a few; literally, in men of few; i.e. consisting of few men, as a small company; the father and head of the tribe is named for those belonging to him. (cf. Gen_34:30 Gen_46:27) A great nation, etc. (cf. Exo_1:7, Exo_1:9)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A Syrian ready to perish was my father.
Deu_26:5
A Syrian ready to perish was my father.
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Humiliation in connection with gratitude
Such was the confession required of every priest of Israel when he presented, before the altar, the offering of first-fruits. It was, therefore, in the midst of abundance, a memorial of former destitution, and an acknowledgment of utter unworthiness, under circumstances of peculiar obligation. The text is capable of divers renderings; but take whichever we may, the lesson is the same. It teaches us, that when the Divine promises are all fulfilled, and our salvation is complete, we are still to remember the past (Isa_51:1). The connection between acceptable thanksgiving and profound humiliation is a fact which none but a Pharisee would dare to disregard, and which it behoves the Christian to bear in mind in all his devout meditations and religious exercises. Should pride ever rise within his bosom--Who maketh thee to differ? is a consideration which may suffice to put it down: nor will he, if walking in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, when, by virtue of his royal priesthood, he has boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, forget to say there--A Syrian ready to perish was my father. The natural philosopher may rejoice that he is not a brute, and a pagan may glory in the attributes peculiar to man, but the devout student learns some very humbling facts concerning the position of our race. Among the rest is this, that, of intelligent beings, man is probably the lowest in the scale. That angels excel us in strength is obvious from everything we know concerning them; and that devils have far greater intellectual power than belongs to man, none acquainted with their devices will be disposed to question. To boast of our mental superiority, then, is but to mingle ignorance with pride. The humiliation which these considerations may be supposed to engender is deepened by the recollection, that our case is not one of poverty alone, but of degradation. Whatever may have been mans original glory, that glory has long since departed. His boast of heraldry is vain; traced back to its earliest antiquity, it bespeaks his ruin. His crest is an inverted crown. And this is his motto--Man that was in honour abode not. The grace of God works wonders. It copes with depravity, and subdues it. It rescues the sinner from his degradation, and renders him meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. But it also teaches him never to forget, even amidst the splendours of the heavenly temple, to which it ultimately introduces him, the ancient acknowledgment of the adoring Israelite--A Syrian ready to perish was my father. (D. E. Ford.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)
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My ancestor was a wandering Aramean
This is the beginning of the statement that the Israelite male should make when bringing his basket.
a wandering Aramean
This refers to Jacob, who was the ancestor of all the Israelites. He lived for many years in Aram-Nahairam, a region located in Syria.
stayed there
"lived the rest of his life there"
There he became
The word "he" is a metonym for "Jacob's descendants." (See: Metonymy)
a great, mighty
These words mean basically the same thing. They emphasize that Israel became a large and powerful nation. AT: "very great" (See: Doublet)
translationWords
Aram
Egypt
people group
might
nation
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 26:5 Jacob’s mother (Rebekah) was an Aramean (Gen 24:10;…
26:5 Jacob’s mother (Rebekah) was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26), and Jacob also lived in Aram for many years (Gen 31:41-42). His lifestyle was seminomadic (wandering). • few in number: Jacob and his family totaled only seventy when they went to Egypt (see Gen 46:27; Exod 1:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.