Deuteronomy 9:29

But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Moses addresses God on Mount Sinai while interceding for Israel following the golden calf incident. He invokes God’s prior deliverance to counter the claim that divine failure or hatred caused Israel’s wilderness deaths.

The words — The text identifies the Israelites as God’s “people” (עַמּ/ךָ, am-mekha) and “inheritance” (נַחֲלָת/ךָ, nachalath-kha), stating that God brought them out “by your great strength” (בְּ/כֹחֲ/ךָ, be-kho'kha) and “outstretched arm” (בִּ/זְרֹעֲ/ךָ, bi-zro'akha). These terms function as covenant markers that ground the plea in demonstrated power rather than human merit.

The thread — This phrasing reappears in Nehemiah 1:10, where the community is called God’s servants and people redeemed by His mighty hand, and in Deuteronomy 4:34, which records God’s unique deliverance of a nation through trials and a strong hand. Moses uses the identical appeal in Deuteronomy 9:26.

Why it lands — The verse requires acknowledging that covenant standing depends on God’s prior acts of deliverance, not on Israel’s current behavior. It asks the reader to ground requests for intervention in recorded power and established identity.

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

וְהֵ֥םve./Hemand/ they עַמְּךָ֖'a.me./Kha[are] people/ your וְנַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָve./na.cha.la.Te./khaand/ inheritance/ your אֲשֶׁ֤ר'a.Sherwhich הוֹצֵ֙אתָ֙ho.Tze.tayou brought out בְּכֹחֲךָ֣be./kho.cha./Khaby/ strength/ your הַגָּדֹ֔לha./ga.Dol<the>/ great וּבִֽזְרֹעֲךָ֖u./vi/z.ro.'a./Khaand/ by/ arm/ your הַנְּטוּיָֽה׃ פha./ne.tu.Yah<the>/ outstretched

King James Version

Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.

Cross-references

Nehemiah 1:10 They are Your servants and Your people. You redeemed them by Your great power and mighty hand.
Deuteronomy 4:34 Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?
Deuteronomy 9:26 And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
1 Kings 8:51 For they are Your people and Your inheritance; You brought them out of Egypt, out of the furnace for iron.
Deuteronomy 4:20 Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
Psalms 95:7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice,
Psalms 100:3 Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Isaiah 63:19 We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.
1 Kings 8:15 and said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,