Deuteronomy 7:21 (DBY)

Passage

Thou shalt not be afraid of them; for Jehovah thy God is in thy midst, a God great and terrible.

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:19 the great trials which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the powerful hand, and the stretched-out arm, whereby Jehovah thy God brought thee out: so will Jehovah thy God do unto all the peoples whom thou fearest.

Deuteronomy 7:20 Moreover, Jehovah thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and they that hide themselves from thee, are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 7:21 Thou shalt not be afraid of them; for Jehovah thy God is in thy midst, a God great and terrible.

Deuteronomy 7:22 And Jehovah thy God will cast out those nations from before thee by little and little; thou shalt not be able to make an end of them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

Deuteronomy 7:23 But Jehovah thy God will give them up before thee, and will confound them with great consternation, until they are destroyed.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "shalt", "afraid", "jehovah", "midst", "great", and "terrible". 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 20's "Moreover Jehovah thy God will send the..." into verse 22's "And Jehovah thy God will cast out...", 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.