Deuteronomy 7:7
◄  Deuteronomy 7:7  ►
New International Version (©2011)
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

New Living Translation (©2007)
"The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!

English Standard Version (©2001)
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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:

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The LORD was devoted to you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

International Standard Version (©2012)
"It wasn't because you were more numerous than other people of the earth that the LORD committed himself to you and chose you. In fact, you were the least numerous of all the peoples.

NET Bible (©2006)
It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the LORD favored and chose you--for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The LORD set his heart on you and chose you, even though you didn't outnumber all the other people. You were the smallest of all nations.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people:

American King James Version
The LORD did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people:

American Standard Version
Jehovah 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 peoples:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you, and hath chosen you, for you are the fewest of any people:

Darby Bible Translation
Not because ye were more in number than all the peoples, hath Jehovah been attached to you and chosen you, for ye are the fewest of all the peoples;

English Revised 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 peoples:

Webster's Bible Translation
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:

World English Bible
Yahweh didn't set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples:

Young's Literal Translation
Not because of your being more numerous than any of the peoples hath Jehovah delighted in you, and fixeth on you, for ye are the least of all the peoples,

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-11 Here is a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God, must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. Limiting the orders to destroy, to the nations here mentioned, plainly shows that after ages were not to draw this into a precedent. A proper understanding of the evil of sin, and of the mystery of a crucified Saviour, will enable us to perceive the justice of God in all his punishments, temporal and eternal. We must deal decidedly with our lusts that war against our souls; let us not show them any mercy, but mortify, and crucify, and utterly destroy them. Thousands in the world that now is, have been undone by ungodly marriages; for there is more likelihood that the good will be perverted, than that the bad will be converted. Those who, in choosing yoke-fellows, keep not within the bounds of a profession of religion, cannot promise themselves helps meet for them.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Set his love upon you. The Hebrew verb meaning primarily to cleave to, to be attached to, is used to express ardent and loving affection (cf. Genesis 34:8; Deuteronomy 10:15; Isaiah 38:17). The fewest of all people. It might have been supposed that, in choosing a people to be his special treasure, the Almighty would have selected some one of the great nations of the world; but, instead of that, he had chosen one of the smallest. They had, indeed, grown till now they were as the stars for multitude; but it was not in prospect of this that they were chosen. The election of Israel was purely of grace.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you,.... He had done both, and the one as the effect and evidence of the other; he loved them, and therefore he chose them; but neither of them:

because ye were more in number than any people; not for the quantity of them, nor even for the quality of them:

for ye were the fewest of all people; fewer than the Egyptians, from whence they came, and than the Canaanites they were going to drive out and inherit their land, Deuteronomy 7:1. Those whom God has loved with an everlasting love, and as a fruit of it has chosen them in Christ before the world began to grace and glory, holiness and happiness, are but a small number, a little flock; though many are called, few are chosen; nor are they better than others, being by nature children of wrath even as others, and as to their outward circumstances the poor of this world.

Deuteronomy 7:7 Parallel Commentaries

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Casting out the Nations
…6For you are an holy people to the LORD your God: the LORD your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself, above all people that are on the face of the earth. 7The LORD did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people: 8But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, has the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. …

Deuteronomy 1:10 The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Deuteronomy 4:37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,
1 Chronicles 16:19 When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it,
Psalm 44:3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.
Psalm 105:12 When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it,
Isaiah 63:9 In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Ezekiel 36:22 "Therefore say to the Israelites, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.