Read
Psalm 105:12
when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
10and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,”
12when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
13They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
14He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
Notice
The repeated words “very few” make Israel’s small beginnings hard to overlook: God promised Canaan to people who still lived there as foreigners.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What stands out to you about God promising land to people described as foreigners in it?
Write on thisWhere, if anywhere, do you find yourself treating strength in numbers as a measure of God’s care?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Deuteronomy 7:7The LORD 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;Both passages recall Israel’s small numbers; Deuteronomy states that God’s love and choice did not depend on numerical strength.
Genesis 34:30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in …Jacob’s fear for his household shows the danger that could accompany being few in number among the land’s inhabitants.
Hebrews 11:9By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.Both describe living as foreigners in the promised land, with Hebrews naming Isaac and Jacob as fellow heirs of the promise.
Genesis 23:4“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”The psalm’s description of foreigners takes concrete form in a request for a burial place from someone living as a stranger.
Deuteronomy 26:5You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he …Both recall ancestors who were few in number and lived away from an established homeland.
Jeremiah 35:6But they said, “We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, neither you nor your …Both look back to an earlier generation, though Jeremiah concerns an ancestor’s command about wine and shares no direct thread of fewness or foreignness.
Exodus 6:4I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens.Both connect God’s covenant promise of Canaan with the ancestors’ life as foreigners in that same land.
Ezekiel 33:24–33“Son of man, those who inhabit the waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, ‘Abraham was one, and he inherited the land; but we are many. The land is …Both connect small numbers with the land inheritance, though Ezekiel records inhabitants using Abraham’s example to argue their own claim.
Genesis 17:8I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their …Both describe Canaan as land promised by God while those receiving the promise still lived there without settled possession.
Isaiah 51:2Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many.Both recall small beginnings under God’s care; Isaiah names Abraham and Sarah and describes God making Abraham many.
Hebrews 11:12Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as …Both recall the small beginnings of a people, with Hebrews tracing a vast multitude back to one man.
Acts 7:5He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after …Both distinguish God’s promise of land from present possession, describing beginnings with little outward sign of the promised inheritance.
Where this verse fits
Waiting. fear for the future. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Being few and foreign did not put these people beyond God’s covenant care. His promise of Canaan was already spoken while their numbers were small and their place unsettled.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).