Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 9:5
It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, moments before they cross the Jordan to take Canaan. He interrupts their anticipated celebration to correct their expected reasoning about the conquest.
The words — The Hebrew בְּצִדְקָתְךָ (be-tzidkatkha) translates literally to "because of your righteousness," paired with יֹשֶׁר לְבָבְךָ (yosher levavkha), meaning "uprightness of heart." Moses places these terms in the negative clause to explicitly reject human moral standing as the cause of the land grant.
The thread — The text grounds the land promise in Genesis 17:8 and Genesis 26:4, where God's oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob serves as the sole basis for the inheritance. Titus 3:5 later mirrors this structure by contrasting human righteous deeds with divine mercy as the ground of salvation.
Why it lands — The text states that God drives out the nations because of their wickedness and to keep His sworn promise, not because of Israel's righteousness. Readers must conclude that covenant possession depends entirely on divine action and oath, leaving no room for self-congratulation.
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
Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Cross-references
- Titus 3:5 He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- Genesis 17:8 And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
- Genesis 26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
- Genesis 12:7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
- Genesis 13:15 for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
- Genesis 15:7 The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
- Genesis 28:13 And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
- Ezekiel 20:14 But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
- Exodus 32:13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
- Micah 7:20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.