Deuteronomy 7:17 (ASV)

Passage

If thou shalt say in thy heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:15 And Jehovah will take away from thee all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, will he put upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

Deuteronomy 7:16 And thou shalt consume all the peoples that Jehovah thy God shall deliver unto thee; thine eye shall not pity them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

Deuteronomy 7:17 If thou shalt say in thy heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

Deuteronomy 7:18 thou shalt not be afraid of them: thou shalt well remember what Jehovah thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Deuteronomy 7:19 the great trials which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, whereby Jehovah thy God brought thee out: so shall Jehovah thy God do unto all the peoples of whom thou art afraid.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "shalt", "heart", "nations", "than", and "dispossess". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "shalt", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "And thou shalt consume all the peoples..." into verse 18's "thou shalt not be afraid of them...", so "thou" and "shalt" belong inside that flow. In Deuteronomy context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thou" and "shalt" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.