Deuteronomy Chapter 26 verse 5 Holy Bible
And thou shalt answer and say before Jehovah thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
read chapter 26 in ASV
And these are the words which you will say before the Lord your God: My father was a wandering Aramaean, and he went down with a small number of people into Egypt; there he became a great and strong nation:
read chapter 26 in BBE
And thou shalt speak and say before Jehovah thy God, A perishing Aramean was my father, and he went down to Egypt with a few, and sojourned there, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
read chapter 26 in DARBY
And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
read chapter 26 in KJV
And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down to Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
read chapter 26 in WBT
You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
read chapter 26 in WEB
`And thou hast answered and said before Jehovah thy God, A perishing Aramaean `is' my father! and he goeth down to Egypt, and sojourneth there with few men, and becometh there a nation, great, mighty, and numerous;
read chapter 26 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - A Syrian ready to perish was my father. The reference is to Jacob, the stem-father of the twelve tribes, he is here called a Syrian, or Aramaean, because of his long residence in Mesopotamia (Genesis 29-31.), whence Abraham had originally come (Genesis 11:31), and because there the family of which he was the head was founded. The translation "ready to perish" fairly represents the Hebrew; the verb אָבַד means not merely to stray or wander, but also to lose one's self, to perish, to be in danger of perishing (cf. Deuteronomy 4:26; Job 29:13; Proverbs 31:6, etc.). Different renderings of this clause have been given. The Targum, Vulgate, Luther, etc., have, "The Aramaean (i.e. Laban) oppressed my father;" The LXX., Συρίαν ἀπέλιπεν ὁ πατήρ μου ("My father left Syria"); others, "To the Aramaean my father wandered." But these either follow another reading than that of the received text, or they are expedients to soften down the apparent ignominy of the description. The probable allusion to the wandering, nomadic life of the patriarch, however, is not to be lost sight cf. With a few; literally, in men of few; i.e. consisting of few men, as a small company; the father and head of the tribe is named for those belonging to him (cf. Genesis 34:30; Genesis 46:27). A great nation, etc. (cf. Exodus 1:7, 9).
