Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 7:17
You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, immediately after commanding them to destroy the Canaanite nations without pity. He voices their anticipated internal hesitation when confronting the larger, fortified populations of the promised land.
The words — The Hebrew verb תֹאמַר (toMar) translates literally as “you will say,” anchored by בְּלִבְּךָ (belevkha), “in your heart.” These terms frame the verse as a private calculation of military odds rather than a public rebellion.
The thread — This internal doubt mirrors the spies’ report in Numbers 13:32 that the land devours its inhabitants, and parallels the self-reliant heart speech recorded in Deuteronomy 8:17. The pattern tracks how Israel repeatedly measures human strength against divine instruction.
Why it lands — The text records the logical question “how can we drive them out?” before the surrounding commands to remember God’s judgment on Pharaoh and Egypt. It requires the reader to acknowledge that logistical fear must be displaced by remembered historical acts of divine intervention.
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
If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
Cross-references
- Numbers 13:32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
- Numbers 33:53 You are to take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.
- Deuteronomy 8:17 You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”
- Deuteronomy 15:9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- Deuteronomy 18:21 You may ask in your heart, “How can we recognize a message that the LORD has not spoken?”
- Joshua 17:16 “The hill country is not enough for us,” they replied, “and all the Canaanites who live in the valley have iron chariots, both in Beth-shean with its towns and in the Valley of Jezreel.”
- Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.
- Isaiah 47:8 So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’
- Isaiah 49:21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”
- Luke 9:47 But Jesus, knowing the thoughts of their hearts, had a little child stand beside Him.