Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 32:30
How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel in the plains of Moab, concluding his Song of Witness about their future rebellion and the consequences of abandoning covenant loyalty.
The words — The rhetorical question hinges on אֵיכָ֞ה ('ei.Khah), meaning "how?", and אִם\־ ('im-), meaning "if" or "unless", framing military collapse as a conditional outcome of divine withdrawal rather than mere tactical failure.
The thread — This motif of reversed numbers appears in Leviticus 26:8, where God promises multiplied victory, and Isaiah 30:17, where a thousand flee at the threat of one, showing consistent biblical linkage between divine presence and battlefield outcomes.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that military success or defeat depends entirely on whether the sovereign has granted or withheld support, requiring readers to evaluate their circumstances through covenant faithfulness rather than human strength.
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 should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
- Joshua 23:10 One of you can put a thousand to flight, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as He promised.
- Isaiah 30:17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
- Psalms 31:8 You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- Psalms 44:12 You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.
- Judges 7:22 And when the three hundred rams’ horns sounded, the LORD set all the men in the camp against one another with their swords. The army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.
- Judges 3:8 Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.
- 1 Samuel 14:15 Then panic struck the Philistines in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. Even those in the outposts and raiding parties trembled. Indeed, the earth quaked, and panic spread from God.
- 2 Chronicles 24:24 Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army. Because Judah had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.
- Isaiah 52:3 For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”