What Does Deuteronomy 7:18 Mean?
Do not fear them, but remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;THE KEY
The command to remember turns Egypt into proof that the force threatening you now is not beyond the LORD’s power to break.
THE MEANING
The force in front of you can feel total, but it is not the only reality at work. The LORD’s action against Pharaoh and all Egypt remains a living measure: what grips you now is not beyond the power to release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that today’s threat is absolute and that fear is the clearest measure of its power.
THE ROOT
זָכֹר תִּזְכֹּר
zākor tizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
remember, call to mind
“remember well” in this verse is zākor tizkor. The Hebrew intensifies the command with a form that carries the force of “remember, you shall remember.” This is memory brought into the present, where the LORD’s action can reset the scale of fear.
ALSO GROWS
zikaron: remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial makes remembered action visible in the present, like the deed this verse calls to mind.
hizkir: mention, bring to mind
הִזְכִּיר
The related verb shows remembrance becoming an active bringing-forward of what happened.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
ṣ-r-r
be narrow, bind, constrain
Mitzrayim carries the image of the two narrows. Egypt is not only the enemy named here; it also evokes constriction that the LORD has already acted against.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: narrow, tight
צַר
This is the narrowness carried in the verse’s name for Egypt.
metzar: strait, confined place, distress
מֵצַר
This branch makes constriction a lived condition, echoing the threat the verse sets beside the LORD’s action.
תִּירָא
tira
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
fear, stand in awe
Here the object is “them,” so the word carries fear toward danger. The same root can also name awe toward God, revealing a range of fear and reverent regard as the verse redirects attention from the threat to the LORD’s deeds.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: fear, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the same root’s range from fear before danger to awe before God.
mora: dread, terror
מוֹרָא
This branch gives the threatening force of fear that the verse meets with remembrance.
THE PATTERN
Remembered acts of deliverance place present fear within a larger measure of the LORD’s power.
The great trials your eyes have seen, and the signs, and the wonders, and the gripping hand, and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out; so the LORD your God will do to all the peoples before whom you fear.I remember the deeds of the LORD; surely I remember your wonders of old.So that we may boldly say, The LORD is my helper, and I will not fear. What will a human do to me?THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.The verse names Egypt as Mitzrayim, carrying the image of constriction; Psalm’s “distress” is מִן־הַמֵּצַר (min ha-mēṣar), “from the narrow place,” echoing that same narrowing root. Its movement from the strait to a large place gives the remembered Egypt a present shape: constriction can give way to spaciousness.
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