What Does Deuteronomy 7:7 Mean?
The LORD did not cling to you, nor choose you, because you outnumbered any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples.
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
The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:THE KEY
God’s love is not explained by numerical advantage: the chosen are named as the fewest.
THE MEANING
Being few does not make you invisible to love; this verse places love and choosing beyond the measure of numbers. Your smallness is named plainly, without being treated as a defect that must first be corrected.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must become impressive, powerful, or numerous to be worthy of love.
THE ROOT
חָשַׁק
ḥāšaq
GROWS FROM
חשק
To attach, cling, or desire.
“cling to” in this verse is ḥāšaq. The word translated “set his love” carries the sense of desire that attaches. Its sibling uses describe longing for someone, so the verse pictures love as attachment alongside choosing, without making a people’s numbers the reason for either.
ALSO GROWS
longeth: Longs for or desires.
The same root describes desire that reaches toward a person, adding the sense of attachment to the verse’s “set his love.”
desire: Desires or becomes attached to.
Here too the root speaks of a desire that takes hold, opening up the force in the verse’s language of love.
THE PATTERN
Divine choosing repeatedly appears where human measures of strength and rank cannot explain it.
He raises the bowed from the dust, and lifts the one in want from the ash heap, to seat them among the openhanded, and to make them hold the seat of weight. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he sets the world upon them.But God picked out the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God picked out the weak things of the world to shame the strong.THE THREAD
Only to your fathers did the LORD cling, to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.The same Hebrew root behind “set his love” appears here as “had a delight,” paired with “chose.” That pairing lets you hear attachment and selection together, with no appeal to a people’s size.
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