Deuteronomy 1:12
in Deuteronomy 1But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes all by myself?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
KJV
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
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This verse in Deuteronomy 1
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes
on Deuteronomy 1:12-15
Verse 13 has the people choose "wise, understanding, and respected men", and Moses appoints them. Exodus 18:21 has Moses doing the choosing and asks for men "God-fearing, trustworthy" and "averse to dishonest gain".
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.
That he was not desirous to prefer his own creatures, or such as should underhand have a dependence upon him; for he leaves it to the people to choose their own judges, to whom he would grant commissions, not durant bene placito--to be turned out when he pleased; but quam diu se bene gesserint--to continue so long as they approved themselves faithful.
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
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 ▾
VIDU’IM L’SHIVTEICHEM’ (AND KNOWN AMONG YOUR TRIBES) — “men who are known to you. For if he were to come before me [Moses] wrapped in his robe, I would not know who he is and of what tribe he is, but you know him for you have raised him.
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
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵיכָ֥ה | ʾeikhah | how? | H349 → | 82 times |
| אֶשָּׂ֖א | ʾesa' | will I bear | H5375 → | 656 times |
| לְבַדִּ֑י | levadi | to alone me | H905 → | 200 times |
| טָרְחֲכֶ֥ם | tarechakhem | burden your | H2960 → | |
| וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖ם | umasaakhem | and burden your | H4853 → | |
| וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃ | verivekhem | and dispute[s] your | H7379 → | 61 times |
אֵיכָ֥הhow?
ʾeikhahH349 →82 times
אֶשָּׂ֖אwill I bear
ʾesa'H5375 →656 times
לְבַדִּ֑יto alone me
levadiH905 →200 times
טָרְחֲכֶ֥םburden your
tarechakhemH2960 →
וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖םand burden your
umasaakhemH4853 →
וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃and dispute[s] your
verivekhemH7379 →61 times
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
2 Corinthians 3:5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of…
- Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
- Philippians 2:13
For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.
- John 15:5
I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
- 1 Corinthians 15:10
Through
2 Corinthians 2:16To the one, we are an odor of death and demise; to the other, a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 3:5–6
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
- 1 Peter 2:7–8
To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
- John 9:39
Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”
- 2 Corinthians 3:5–6
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 (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.