Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 1:12
But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes all by myself?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses speaks to the Israelites at the edge of the Promised Land, positioned between his prayer for their multiplication and his command to select tribal leaders.
The words — The verse centers on אֵיכָ֥ה ('ei.Khah), meaning "how?", and לְ/בַדִּ֑/י (le./va.D/i), meaning "to/ alone/ me". These terms frame a direct rhetorical question about the impossibility of carrying communal responsibilities without assistance.
The thread — This declaration of unendurable solitary burden appears in Deuteronomy 1:9, recurs in Moses' complaint in Numbers 11:11, and finds its theological resolution in 2 Corinthians 3:5.
Why it lands — The text states that leadership and communal disputes require shared human agents rather than solitary endurance, demanding the reader acknowledge structural dependence over individual self-sufficiency.
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
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
- Numbers 11:11 So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have You brought this trouble on Your servant? Why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid upon me the burden of all these people?
- Deuteronomy 1:9 At that time I said to you, “I cannot carry the burden for you alone.
- 1 Kings 3:7 And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.
- Psalms 89:19 You once spoke in a vision; to Your godly ones You said, “I have bestowed help on a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people.
- 2 Corinthians 2:16 To the one we are an odor that brings death, to the other a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?
- Exodus 18:13 The next day Moses took his seat to judge the people, and they stood around him from morning until evening.