Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel in the plains of Moab, contrasting their patriarchs' descent into Egypt with their current national expansion under Yahweh.
The words — נֶ֔פֶשׁ (Nepesh) = persons; שָֽׂמְ/ךָ֙ (samekha) = he has made you.
The thread — The descent of seventy persons is recorded in Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5, while the star comparison originates in Genesis 15:5.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to acknowledge God's direct agency in transforming a small family group into a multitude, fulfilling the numerical promise across generations.
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
Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.
Cross-references
- Genesis 46:27 And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.
- Exodus 1:5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.
- 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.”
- Deuteronomy 1:10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are 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.
- 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.
- Numbers 26:51 These men of Israel numbered 601,730 in all.
- Acts 7:14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.
- Numbers 26:62 The registration of the Levites totaled 23,000, every male a month old or more; they were not numbered among the other Israelites, because no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.
- Hebrews 11:12 And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.