'Great' in the Bible

God made the two great lights—the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night—as well as the stars.

But Cain answered the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear!

and Resen, between Nineveh and the great city Calah.

I will make you into a great nation,I will bless you,I will make your name great,and you will be a blessing.

After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:Do not be afraid, Abram.I am your shield;your reward will be very great.

As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him; I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father 12 tribal leaders, and I will make him into a great nation.

Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.

Get up, help the boy up, and support him, for I will make him a great nation.”

I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me: ‘Watch yourself. Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”

Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt.

God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.”

“Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.

Pharaoh will not listen to you, but I will put My hand on Egypt and bring the divisions of My people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.

Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt such as never was before, or ever will be again.

When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in Him and in His servant Moses.

You overthrew Your adversariesby Your great majesty.You unleashed Your burning wrath;it consumed them like stubble.

Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

But Moses interceded with the Lord his God: “Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?

Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from Your great anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for Your people.

The following day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a grave sin. Now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I will be able to atone for your sin.”

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a grave sin; they have made a god of gold for themselves.

So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.

Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

But Balaam responded to the servants of Balak, “If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go against the command of the Lord my God to do anything small or great.

There is no magic curse against Jacoband no divination against Israel.It will now be said about Jacob and Israel,“What great things God has done!”

Do not show partiality when deciding a case; listen to small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.

“We then set out from Horeb and went across all the great and terrible wilderness you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,

The Emim, a great and numerous people as tall as the Anakim, had previously lived there.

a great and numerous people, tall as the Anakim. The Lord destroyed the Rephaim at the advance of the Ammonites, so that they drove them out and settled in their place.

Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’

For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to Him?

And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

“Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created man on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of?

Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

He let you hear His voice from heaven to instruct you. He showed you His great fire on earth, and you heard His words from the fire.

Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer.

Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household,

the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear.

Don’t be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, a great and awesome God, is among you.

The Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint-like rock for you.

But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe.

He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome works your eyes have seen.

Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.

But if the distance is too great for you to carry it, since the place where Yahweh your God chooses to put His name is too far away from you and since the Lord your God has blessed you,

This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’

Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die, since he did not previously hate his neighbor.

You are to respond by saying in the presence of the Lord your God:My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with a few people and lived there. There he became a great, powerful, and populous nation.

You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders.

All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

The Lord uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.’

Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great Euphrates River—all the land of the Hittites—and west to the Mediterranean Sea.

So the people shouted, and the trumpets sounded. When they heard the blast of the trumpet, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. The people advanced into the city, each man straight ahead, and they captured the city.

When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. Then what will You do about Your great name?”

The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel. He defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them through the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

The Lord handed them over to Israel, and they struck them down, pursuing them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and to the east as far as the Valley of Mizpeh. They struck them down, leaving no survivors.

Joshua was now old, getting on in years, and the Lord said to him, “You have become old, getting on in years, but a great deal of the land remains to be possessed.

So Joshua replied to Joseph’s family (that is, Ephraim and Manasseh), “You have many people and great strength. You will not have just one allotment,

Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, as far as Great Sidon.

he said, “Return to your homes with great wealth: a huge number of cattle, and silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a large quantity of clothing. Share the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

“The Lord has driven out great and powerful nations before you, and no one is able to stand against you to this day.

For the Lord our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us all along the way we went and among all the peoples whose lands we traveled through.

The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works He had done for Israel.

The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;Issachar was with Barak.They set out at his heels in the valley.There was great searching of heartamong the clans of Reuben.

Why did you sit among the sheepfoldslistening to the playing of pipes for the flocks?There was great searching of heartamong the clans of Reuben.

For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to waste it.

Jephthah the Gileadite was a great warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.

He defeated 20 of their cities with a great slaughter from Aroer all the way to the entrance of Minnith and to Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me. I have given my word to the Lord and cannot take it back.”

He tore them limb from limb with a great slaughter, and he went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

He became very thirsty and called out to the Lord: “You have accomplished this great victory through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

The Philistine leaders went to her and said, “Persuade him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Each of us will then give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me, where does your great strength come from? How could someone tie you up and make you helpless?”

“How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!”

Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said:Our god has handed overour enemy Samson to us.

The men of Israel had a prearranged signal with the men in ambush: when they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city,

The Israelites asked, “Who of all the tribes of Israel didn’t come to the Lord with the assembly?” For a great oath had been taken that anyone who had not come to the Lord at Mizpah would certainly be put to death.

The messenger answered, “Israel has fled from the Philistines, and also there was a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”

After they had moved it, the Lord’s hand was against the city of Gath, causing a great panic. He afflicted the men of the city, from the youngest to the oldest, with an outbreak of tumors.

God struck down the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the Lord. He struck down 70 men out of 50,000 men. The people mourned because the Lord struck them with a great slaughter.

“Now, therefore, present yourselves and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes.

Isn’t the wheat harvest today? I will call on the Lord and He will send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you committed in the Lord’s sight by requesting a king for yourselves.”

The Lord will not abandon His people, because of His great name and because He has determined to make you His own people.

Above all, fear the Lord and worship Him faithfully with all your heart; consider the great things He has done for you.

Saul and all the troops with him assembled and marched to the battle, and there, the Philistines were fighting against each other in great confusion!

But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die, who accomplished such a great deliverance for Israel? No, as the Lord lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for he worked with God’s help today.” So the people redeemed Jonathan, and he did not die.

Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him: “The king should not sin against his servant David. He hasn’t sinned against you; in fact, his actions have been a great advantage to you.

He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”

When war broke out again, David went out and fought against the Philistines. He defeated them with such a great force that they fled from him.

Jonathan said to him, “No, you won’t die. Listen, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This can’t be true.”

Saul said to him, “You are blessed, my son David. You will certainly do great things and will also prevail.” Then David went on his way, and Saul returned home.