Deuteronomy 9:4

Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Speak	תֹּאמַ֣ר to.Mar	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
heart	בִּלְבָבְךָ֗ bil.va.ve.Kha	H3824	the heart (as the most interior organ) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
LORD	יְהוָה֩ Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God	אֱלֹהֶ֨יךָ 'e.lo.Hei.kha	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
out	בַּהֲדֹ֣ף ba.ha.Dof	H1920	to push away or down · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
before	מִלְּפָנֶיךָ֮ mi.le.fa.nei.Kha	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 8:17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
Deuteronomy 9:5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nation…
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was giv…
Leviticus 18:24-30 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
1 Corinthians 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glor…
Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 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…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 9:1-6

The call to attention (Deu 9:1), Hear, O Israel, intimates that this was a new discourse, delivered at some distance of time after the former, probably the next sabbath day. I. Moses represents to the people the formidable strength of the enemies which they were now to encounter, Deu 9:1. The nations they were to dispossess were mightier than themselves, not a rude and undisciplined rout, like the natives of America, that were easily made a prey of. But, should they besiege them, they would find their cities well fortified, according as the art of fortification then was; should they engage them in the field, they would find the people great and tall, of whom common fame had reported that the…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 9:4

Speak not thou in thine heart, . . . saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land--Moses takes special care to guard his countrymen against the vanity of supposing that their own merits had procured them the distinguished privilege. The Canaanites were a hopelessly corrupt race, and deserved extermination; but history relates many remarkable instances in which God punished corrupt and guilty nations by the instrumentality of other people as bad as themselves. It was not for the sake of the Israelites, but for His own sake, for the promise made to their pious ancestors, and in furtherance of high and comprehensive purposes of good to the world, that God was ab…

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John Gill on Deuteronomy 9:4

Speak not thou in thine heart,.... Never once think within thyself, or give way to such a vain imagination, and please thyself with it: after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee; to make way for the Israelites, and put them into the possession of their land; which is to be ascribed not to them, but to the Lord: saying, for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land; such a thought as this was not to be secretly cherished in their hearts, and much less expressed with their lips; nothing being more foreign from truth than this, and yet a notion they were prone to entertain. They were always a people, more or less, from first to last, tainted with…

The Church Fathers

I ask, what could be said more clearly against that pernicious opinion and presumption of ours, by which we want to attribute everything that we do to our free will and to our own effort? "Do not say in your heart, when the Lord your God has destroyed them in your sight: Because of my righteousness the Lord has led me in to possess this land." Did he not express himself clearly to those whose souls' eyes are open and whose ears hear? Namely, when you have enjoyed a notable success in warring against the carnal vices and you see that you have been freed from their filthiness and from this world's way of life, you should not be puffed up with the success of the struggle and the victory and ascribe this to your own strength and wisdom, believing that you were able to obtain victory over evil spirits and carnal vices through your own efforts and application and free will. There is no doubt that you would never have been able to prevail over these if the Lord's help had not fortified and protected you.
— John Cassian, CONFERENCE 5.15.3-4

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Canaanites, The · Expelled for wickedness — Expelled for wickedness
Grace Of God · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Humility · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Self-Righteousness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Sins, National · Exemplified: Nations of Canaan — Exemplified: Nations of Canaan

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Deuteronomy 9:4

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 9:1-6

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 9:4

John Gill on Deuteronomy 9:4

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Deuteronomy 9:4

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 9:1-6

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 9:4

John Gill on Deuteronomy 9:4

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Deuteronomy 9:1-6

Keil & Delitzsch on Deuteronomy 9:1-6

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Deuteronomy 9:3

Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:4