Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:43
The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, concluding his covenant blessings and curses before they enter the land. He describes the specific social and economic degradation that will follow their disobedience.
The words — The Hebrew גֵּר (Ger) means resident foreigner or sojourner, and יַעֲלֶה (ya'aleh) means he will go up or rise. The text literally states this foreigner will rise upward above the Israelites while they sink downward.
The thread — This status inversion contrasts with the covenant promise in Deuteronomy 28:13 that obedience makes Israel the head and not the tail. The surrounding curses in Deuteronomy 28:42 and 28:44 extend this pattern of economic and military subjugation.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that covenant faithfulness dictates national standing, while rebellion produces systemic degradation. It requires the reader to accept that social and economic reversal is a direct consequence of abandoning the covenant terms.
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 stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:13 The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today.
- 1 Samuel 13:19 And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.”
- Judges 2:3 So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”
- Judges 2:11 And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- Judges 4:2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
- Judges 10:7 So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites,
- Judges 14:4 (Now his father and mother did not know this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.)
- Judges 15:11 In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.
- 2 Kings 17:20 So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.
- 2 Kings 17:23 Finally, the LORD removed Israel from His presence, as He had declared through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their homeland into Assyria, where they are to this day.