Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you, and hath chosen you, for you are the fewest of any people:

“לא מרבכם NOT ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR BEING [MORE] NUMEROUS — This is to he understood according to its plain sense. But its Midrashic explanation (taking לא מרבכם in the sense of “not because you are great") is: Because you do not regard yourselves as great when I shower good, upon you, therefore חשק … בכם DID [THE LORD] DELIGHT IN YOU כי אתם המעט FOR YOU ARE LITTLE — you regard yourselves as small, as, e.g., Abraham did who said, (Genesis 18:27) “For I am dust and ashes", and as, e.g., Moses and Aaron did who said, (Exodus 16:7) “And we, what are we?". Not as Nebuchadnezzar who said, (Isaiah 14:14) “I will be like the Most High", and Sennacherib who said, (Isaiah 36:20) “Who are they among all the gods of these countries [that have delivered their countries out of my hand?]", and Hiram who said, (Er. 28:2), “I am a god, I sit in the seat of God" (Chullin 89a). כי אתם המעט — Here you have the word כי used in the sense of “because".”

“CHASHAK’ (HE TOOK DELIGHT). The meaning thereof is that He had “bound” Himself with you with a mighty bond that He will never be separated from you, similar in expression to ‘vachashukeihem’ (and their fillets — silver threads encircling the pillars of the Tabernacle) shall be of silver. And He has chosen you from among all peoples that you be His treasure and inheritance, for “being chosen” always implies selection from others. And he stated the reason, But because the Eternal loved you He chose you, meaning, He saw you to be worthier than all peoples to be loved by Him and to be chosen for love. He mentioned for this no [other] reason except that you were chosen [because of His love for you], for he who is chosen to be loved, is known to be ready to suffer whatever comes upon him from his lover, and the Israelites are more qualified for that than any other people. As the Rabbis have said: “Three [creatures] are of strong character, Israel among the nations etc.,” for Israel has stood by Him in all trials. [When challenged by the nations, Israel has stubbornly declared,] “Either [we remain loyal] Jews or [we will be] nailed to the stake.” And the purport of the word you [and He chose ‘you’] is “because of your fathers,” who became so worthy that He swore to them in order that no sin should cause [His] promise [to them] to be nullified. Therefore He brought you out from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. And He redeemed you — this is an allusion that He smote them in your stead, similar to what is said, I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.”

“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, Deu 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.”