Deuteronomy 1:11
in Deuteronomy 1May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over and bless you as He has promised.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Jehovah, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!
KJV
(The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
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This verse in Deuteronomy 1
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
I cannot carry the burden for you alone
on Deuteronomy 1:9-11
Exodus 18 credits the plan for shared judging to Jethro, who watched Moses judge alone. Here Moses tells it as his own proposal and leaves his father-in-law out. That fits a chapter that holds the people to what they agreed to.
This site's exposition
increase you a thousand times over
Moses breaks into a blessing in the middle of his complaint about the weight of the people. John Gill reads it as proof that Moses did not resent their numbers. Matthew Henry notes that the prayer takes its measure from the promise itself, bless you as He has promised.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are,.... This prayer he made, or this blessing he pronounced on them, to show that he did not envy their increase, nor was any ways uneasy at it, but rejoiced in it, though he gave it as a reason of his not being able to govern them alone: and bless you, as he hath promised you: with all kind of blessings, as he had often promised their fathers.
We are not straitened in the power and goodness of God, why should we be straitened in our own faith and hope, which ought to be as large as the promise? larger they need not be. It is from the promise that Moses here takes the measures of his prayer: The Lord bless you as he hath promised you.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
A reference is here made to the suggestion of Jethro (Ex 18:18). In noticing his practical adoption of a plan by which the administration of justice was committed to a select number of subordinate officers, Moses, by a beautiful allusion to the patriarchal blessing, ascribed the necessity of that memorable change in the government to the vast increase of the population.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
HOW CAN I MYSELF ALONE BEAR ‘TORCHACHEM’ (YOUR TROUBLE) ‘UMASA’ACHEM’ (AND YOUR BURDEN), V’RIVCHEM (AND YOUR STRIFE)? According to the simple meaning of Scripture, Moses our teacher alluded to them the three things which he told Jethro that he was doing for the people, as I have explained there.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Adonoy, your God, has multiplied you, and you are today as numerous the stars in the sky.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְהוָ֞ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֣י | ʾelohei | [the] God of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| אֲבֽוֹתֵכֶ֗ם | ʾavotekhem | ancestors your | H1 → | 1212 times |
| יֹסֵ֧ף | yosef | may he add | H3254 → | 212 times |
| עֲלֵיכֶ֛ם | ʾaleikhem | to you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כָּכֶ֖ם | kakhem | like you | ||
| אֶ֣לֶף | ʾelef | a thousand | H505 → | 505 times |
| פְּעָמִ֑ים | peamim | times | H6471 → | 118 times |
| וִיבָרֵ֣ךְ | vivarekh | and may he bless | H1288 → | 330 times |
| אֶתְכֶ֔ם | ʾetkhem | <obj.> you | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר | kaasher | just as | H834 → | 5497 times |
| דִּבֶּ֥ר | diber | he spoke | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| לָכֶֽם׃ | lakhem | to you |
יְהוָ֞הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהֵ֣י[the] God of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
אֲבֽוֹתֵכֶ֗םancestors your
ʾavotekhemH1 →1212 times
יֹסֵ֧ףmay he add
yosefH3254 →212 times
עֲלֵיכֶ֛םto you
ʾaleikhemH5921 →5755 times
כָּכֶ֖םlike you
kakhem
אֶ֣לֶףa thousand
ʾelefH505 →505 times
פְּעָמִ֑יםtimes
peamimH6471 →118 times
וִיבָרֵ֣ךְand may he bless
vivarekhH1288 →330 times
אֶתְכֶ֔ם<obj.> you
ʾetkhemH853 →10935 times
כַּאֲשֶׁ֖רjust as
kaasherH834 →5497 times
דִּבֶּ֥רhe spoke
diberH1696 →1141 times
לָכֶֽם׃to you
lakhem
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 22:17I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
it leads to
- Genesis 15:5
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 33:22
As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
- 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,
- Psalms 2:8–9
Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.
- Genesis 15:5
Through
Psalms 115:14May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
it leads to
- Acts 3:25
And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Acts 3:25
Through
Numbers 6:27So they shall put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
it leads to
- 2 Chronicles 7:14
and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and…
- 2 Chronicles 7:14
Through
Genesis 26:4I 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,
it leads to
- Genesis 13:16
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 13:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies12
On this verse
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.