ESTUDIO DEL VERSÍCULO
Deuteronomy 31:6 — Be Strong, for the LORD Goes With You
Moses commands Israel to be strong and courageous because Jehovah their God goes with them and will never fail or forsake them.
Escritura
- 6.Esforzaos y cobrad ánimo; no temáis, ni tengáis miedo de ellos, porque Jehová tu Dios es el que va contigo; no te dejará, ni te desamparará.Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them: for Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Qué significa este pasaje
The verse is a direct exhortation from Moses to Israel: "Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them." Three commands cluster together — strength (חִזְקוּ), courage (וֶאֱמָצוּ), and the double negative of not fearing or being terrified. The repetition is rhetorical: Moses anticipates real danger and meets it with repeated resolve. The verse then gives the ground of that resolve in a single clause: "for Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee."
The promise follows the command. The reason Israel can face the nations ahead is not their own military capacity but the presence of Jehovah who "will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Two verbs of abandonment — failing (יַרְפְּךָ) and forsaking (יַעַזְבֶךָּ) — are negated. The grammar places the emphasis on the negative: divine abandonment is what Israel does not need to fear, because it is what God has promised will not happen.
Read as a single sentence, the verse moves from human responsibility ("be strong") to divine faithfulness ("he will not fail thee"). The courage demanded is therefore not self-generated bravery but a response grounded in the character of God. Moses frames Israel's upcoming conquest not as a human military project but as an act in which God goes with them.
Contexto
The verse sits in Moses' final speeches to Israel before his death and before Israel crosses the Jordan. In the verses immediately before, Moses has stated that Jehovah will go over before Israel, destroy the nations, and dispossess them (31:3–5). The charge in 31:6 therefore follows directly upon the promise that God himself will act against Israel's enemies. Immediately after, in 31:7–8, Moses repeats the same charge to Joshua personally in the sight of all Israel, and the same words resurface in 31:23 when Jehovah charges Joshua through Moses. The repetition shows that 31:6 is the public form of a charge addressed both to the people and to their future leader.
The wider chapter frames the charge against a sober backdrop. Moses announces that he will not cross the Jordan (31:2) and later that Israel will break the covenant after entering the land (31:16–21). The song of witness in 31:19–22 is given precisely because future apostasy is expected. Courage is therefore commanded not in a setting of triumphalism but at the threshold of a land Israel will enter without Moses and in which they will later waver. The command to be strong is anchored in the promise of presence precisely because the chapter itself anticipates absence and unfaithfulness.
Preguntas frecuentes
Why is the command repeated three times in this chapter (31:6, 31:7, 31:23)?
The repetition functions rhetorically: Moses addresses Israel as a whole in 31:6, then turns to Joshua personally before all Israel in 31:7, and 31:23 records Jehovah charging Joshua through Moses with the same words. The triple repetition underscores the seriousness of the transition — Moses' death, Joshua's leadership, and Israel's entry into the land — and roots the charge in the unchanging promise that God goes with them.
What does it mean that God will not "fail" or "forsake" Israel?
The verse uses two distinct verbs of abandonment and negates both. To "fail" or "let go" and to "forsake" or "leave" describe what Israel might expect from a human leader who grows weary, dies, or withdraws. The promise excludes both: God himself goes with Israel, so the kind of abandonment tied to human weakness does not apply. The negation is the force of the verse — Israel's courage rests on what God has promised will not happen.
Is the courage commanded in 31:6 self-generated or given by God?
The verse addresses humans in the imperative ("Be strong and of good courage"), so the call to act is genuinely addressed to Israel and Joshua. At the same time, the ground given for the command is entirely divine: "Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee." The courage commanded is therefore a human response enabled and warranted by God's promised presence — not autonomous bravery, but resolve grounded in the character of God.