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mannafest.faith

Deuteronomy 1:28

in Deuteronomy 1

Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Whither are we going up? our brethren have made our heart to melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.

KJV

Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

This verse in Deuteronomy 1

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Cities - walled up to heaven - That is, with very high walls which could not be easily scaled. High walls around houses, etc., in these parts of Arabia are still deemed a sufficient defense against the Arabs, who scarcely ever attempt any thing in the way of plunder but on horseback.

This site's exposition

But you were unwilling to go up

on Deuteronomy 1:26-28

Verse 26 calls the refusal rebellion "against the command of the LORD". The complaint that follows, "Because the LORD hates us", is the exact reverse of 7:8, "because the LORD loved you".

This site's exposition

Our brothers have made our hearts melt

The people blame their brothers, the spies, for melting their hearts. Adam Clarke and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read walls up to the heavens as a figure for walls too high to scale. Matthew Henry answers that the only places truly walled up to heaven are those God's favour surrounds.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Those places only are walled up to heaven that are compassed with God's favour as with a shield. He tells them what pains he took with them to encourage them, when their brethren had said so much to discourage them (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Whither shall we go up?....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

ye came . . . and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land--The proposal to despatch spies emanated from the people through unbelief; but Moses, believing them sincere, gave his cordial assent to this measure, and God on being consulted permitted them to follow the suggestion (see on Nu 13:1).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the cities are great, and walled up to heaven--an Oriental metaphor, meaning very high. The Arab marauders roam about on horseback, and hence the walls of St. Catherine's monastery on Sinai are so lofty that travellers are drawn up by a pulley in a basket.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

The words behind it

21 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • אָנָ֣ה׀where?

    ʾanahH575 →

  • אֲנַ֣חְנוּ[are] we

    ʾanachnuH587 →120 times

  • עֹלִ֗יםgoing up

    ʾolimH5927 →890 times

  • אַחֵינוּ֩countrymen our

    ʾacheinuH251 →630 times

  • הֵמַ֨סּוּthey have made melt

    hemasuH4549 →

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • לְבָבֵ֜נוּheart our

    levavenuH3824 →252 times

  • לֵאמֹ֗ר<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

  • עַ֣ם[the] people

    ʾamH5971 →1873 times

  • גָּד֤וֹל[is] great

    gadolH1419 →526 times

  • וָרָם֙and lofty

    varamH7311 →190 times

  • מִמֶּ֔נּוּmore than us

    mimenuH4480 →1188 times

  • עָרִ֛ים[the] cities

    ʾarimH5892 →1090 times

  • גְּדֹלֹ֥ת[are] large

    gedolotH1419 →526 times

  • וּבְצוּרֹ֖תand fortified

    uvetzurotH1219 →37 times

  • בַּשָּׁמָ֑יִםin the heavens

    bashamayimH8064 →421 times

  • וְגַם־and also

    vegam-H1571 →769 times

  • בְּנֵ֥י[the] descendants of

    beneiH1121 →4930 times

  • עֲנָקִ֖ים[the] Anakites

    ʾanakimH6062 →9 times

  • רָאִ֥ינוּwe saw

    rainuH7200 →1300 times

  • שָֽׁם׃there

    shamH8033 →834 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Joshua 14:8

    Although my brothers who went with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear, I remained loyal to the LORD my God.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 14:24

      But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.

    • Deuteronomy 1:36

      except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”

    • Numbers 13:31

      But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”

    • Joshua 14:14

      Therefore Hebron belongs to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite as an inheritance to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.

  • Through

    Joshua 11:22

    No Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites; only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod did any survive.

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 17:4

      Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,

    • Joshua 15:46

      from Ekron to the sea, all the cities near Ashdod, along with their villages;

    • 1 Chronicles 18:1

      Some time later, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its villages from the hand of the Philistines.

    • 1 Chronicles 8:13

      Eber, Misham, Shemed (who built Ono and Lod with its villages), and Beriah and Shema (who were the heads of families of the inhabitants of Aijalon and who drove out the inhabitants of Gath).

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.