6 Be strong and courageous, don't be afraid, nor be scared of them: for Yahweh your God, he it is who does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Be strong and of good courage. After he had shown that God would be with them, for their help, he exhorts the people to firmness and magnanimity. And surely this is one means of confirming our courage, to be assured that the assistance which God promises will suffice for us: so far is it from being the case, that our zeal and energy in acting aright is impaired, by our ascribing to the grace of God what foolish men attribute to their own free will. For those who are aroused to strenuous action in reliance on their own strength, do no more than cast themselves headlong in their senseless temerity and pride. Let us understand, then, that all exhortations are fleeting and ineffective, which are founded on anything else but simple confidence in the grace of God. Thus Moses assumes, as his ground of exhortation, that God will fight for the Israelites. It must, however, be observed that the people were animated to the perseverance of hope, when God declares that He will be their helper even to the end, by which lesson that impious hallucination is refuted, whereby the Popish theologians have fascinated the world. They deny that believers [1] can be certain of God's grace, except as to their present state. Thus do they hold faith in suspense, so that we may only believe for a day, and even from moment to moment, whilst we are in uncertainty as to what God will do with us on the morrow. Whereas, if faith corresponds with God's promises, and is, as it were, in harmony with them, it must needs extend itself to our whole life, nay, even beyond death itself; for God removes all doubt as to the future by these words, "I will not leave thee nor forsake thee."
1 - The dogmatical statement of this error is made in the decrees of the Council of Trent, Sessio vi. cap. Ix, "Contra inanem haereticorum fiduciam." It is controverted by C., Instit. Book iii. ch. ii. Section 40; in his "Antidote to the Council of Trent;" C. Soc. Edit., p. 125, and elsewhere.
Be strong - חזקו chizku, the same word that is used Exodus 4:21 (note), Exodus 9:15 (note), for hardening Pharaoh's heart. See the notes there. The Septuagint, in this and the following verse, have, Ανδριζου και ισχυε, Play the man, and be strong; and from this St. Paul seems to have borrowed his ideas, 1-Corinthians 16:13 : Στηκετε εν τῃ πιστει· ανδριζεσθε, κρατιουσθε: Stand firm in the faith; play the man - act like heroes; be vigorous.
Be strong and of a good courage,.... The Septuagint version is,"play the men, and be strong;''be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, trusting and relying on him that goes before you; and so take heart, and be of good courage, and act the manly part; the apostle seems to refer to this passage, 1-Corinthians 16:13,
fear not, nor be afraid of them; their enemies, though so numerous, so mighty, and some of them of a gigantic stature, and their cities strong and well fenced:
for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee: in comparison of whom, numbers of men, their strength of body, and fortified places, signify nothing:
he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee; not fail to fulfil his promises to them, not leave them till he had given them complete victory over their enemies, put them into the possession of their land, and settled them in it. This promise, though made to literal Israel, belongs to the spiritual Israel of God, and is made good to every true believer in the Lord; see Hebrews 13:5.
Israel was therefore to be of good courage, and not to be afraid of them (vid., Deuteronomy 1:21; Deuteronomy 20:3).
*More commentary available at chapter level.