Deuteronomy 7:17 (KJV)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

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

Deuteronomy 7:16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

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

Deuteronomy 7:18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Deuteronomy 7:19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "shalt", "thine", "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 people..." 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.