Deuteronomy 7:7

7 It was not because you were greater than all other people that the LORD loved you and chose you. In fact, you were the smallest of peoples!

Deuteronomy 7:7 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:7

The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you
He had done both, and the one as the effect and evidence of the other; he loved them, and therefore he chose them; but neither of them,

because ye were more in number than any people;
not for the quantity of them, nor even for the quality of them:

for ye were the fewest of all people;
fewer than the Egyptians, from whence they came, and than the Canaanites they were going to drive out and inherit their land, ( Deuteronomy 7:1 ) . Those whom God has loved with an everlasting love, and as a fruit of it has chosen them in Christ before the world began to grace and glory, holiness and happiness, are but a small number, a little flock; though many are called, few are chosen; nor are they better than others, being by nature children of wrath even as others, and as to their outward circumstances the poor of this world.

Deuteronomy 7:7 In-Context

5 Instead, this is what you must do with these nations: rip down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their sacred poles, and burn their idols

6 because you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God chose you to be his own treasured people beyond all others on the fertile land.

7 It was not because you were greater than all other people that the LORD loved you and chose you. In fact, you were the smallest of peoples!

8 No, it is because the LORD loved you and because he kept the solemn pledge he swore to your ancestors that the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and saved you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, Egypt's king.

9 Know now then that the LORD your God is the only true God! He is the faithful God, who keeps the covenant and proves loyal to everyone who loves him and keeps his commands—even to the thousandth generation!