Deuteronomy 7:7

7 "Yahweh loved you and chose you not {because of your great number} exceeding all [other] peoples, for you [are] fewer than all of the peoples,

Deuteronomy 7:7 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:7

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 In-Context

5 But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire.

6 For you [are] a holy people for Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be for him a people, a treasured possession from [among] all the peoples that [are] on the face of the earth.

7 "Yahweh loved you and chose you not {because of your great number} exceeding all [other] peoples, for you [are] fewer than all of the peoples,

8 but {because of} the love of Yahweh [for] you and because of his keeping [of] the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors, Yahweh brought you [out] with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

9 [So] know that Yahweh your God, he [is] God, the trustworthy God, maintaining his covenant and his loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "from your multitude/abundance"