Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 2:21
They were a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites. But the LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, recounting how Yahweh cleared the eastern border territory so the Ammonites could inherit it.
The words — The Hebrew גָּדוֹל (gādôl, "great") and רָם (rām, "lofty/tall") describe the Zamzummites' imposing physical presence, while יְהוָה (YHWH) and שָׁמַד (shamad, "destroyed") state that Yahweh actively removed them.
The thread — This displacement pattern repeats in Deuteronomy 2:10 with the Emites, Deuteronomy 2:22 with the Horites, and directly addresses the fear cited in Deuteronomy 1:28.
Why it lands — The text asserts that land inheritance follows divine judgment rather than human numbers, requiring readers to accept God's sovereign redistribution of territory without resistance.
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
A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”
- Deuteronomy 2:10 (The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites.
- Deuteronomy 2:22 just as He had done for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day.
- Deuteronomy 3:11 (For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
- Judges 11:24 Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.
- Jeremiah 27:7 All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.
- Habakkuk 1:10 They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.