Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 1:10
The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, recounting his earlier delegation of judicial burdens and reflecting on the immediate fulfillment of God’s promise to multiply the nation.
The words — הִרְבָּ֣ה (hir.Bah) means “he has increased,” and כְּ/כוֹכְבֵ֥י (ke./chokh.Vei) translates literally to “like stars,” establishing the quantitative benchmark for the population.
The thread — This multiplication motif recurs in Genesis 15:5 and Genesis 22:17, where God pledges to make Abraham’s descendants as countless as the stars, and is echoed in Exodus 32:13 during Moses’ intercession.
Why it lands — The text states the people are now as numerous as the stars because God multiplied them, so the reader must acknowledge divine agency behind their survival and attribute present stability to past promises.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
Cross-references
- Genesis 15:5 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- Exodus 32:13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
- Deuteronomy 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Deuteronomy 28:62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
- Genesis 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
- Exodus 12:37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.
- Numbers 1:46 And all those counted totaled 603,550.
- Nehemiah 9:23 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess.
- 1 Chronicles 27:23 David did not count the men aged twenty or under, because the LORD had said that He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of the sky.