Deuteronomy 7:9 (DBY)

Passage

And thou shalt know that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with them that love him and keep his commandments;

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:7 Not because ye were more in number than all the peoples, hath Jehovah been attached to you and chosen you, for ye are the fewest of all the peoples;

Deuteronomy 7:8 but because Jehovah loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a powerful hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 7:9 And thou shalt know that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with them that love him and keep his commandments;

Deuteronomy 7:10 and repayeth them that hate him [each] to his face, to cause them to perish: he delayeth not with him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

Deuteronomy 7:11 And thou shalt keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "faith", "mercy", "thou", "shalt", "jehovah", "faithful", "keepeth", and "covenant". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "faith" and "mercy", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "but because Jehovah loved you and because..." into verse 10's "and repayeth them that hate him each...", so "faith" and "mercy" 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 "faith" and "mercy" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.