CHAPTER 7
When
the LORD
your God
brings
you into
the land
you
are entering
to possess,
and He drives out
before
you
many
nations—
the Hittites,
Girgashites,
Amorites,
Canaanites,
Perizzites,
Hivites
and Jebusites,
seven
nations
larger
and stronger than you—
and when the LORD
your God
has delivered them over
to you
to defeat them,
then you must completely destroy them.
Make
no
treaty
with them
and show them no
mercy.
Do not
intermarry with them.
Do not
give
your daughters
to their sons
or take
their daughters
for your sons,
because
they will turn your sons
away
from following Me
to serve
other
gods.
Then the anger
of the LORD
will burn against you,
and He will swiftly
destroy you.
Instead,
this is what
you are to do to them:
tear down
their altars,
smash
their sacred pillars,
cut down
their Asherah poles,
and burn
their idols
in the fire.
For
you
are a people
holy
unto the LORD
your God.
The LORD
your God
has chosen
you to be
as a people
for His prized possession,
above all
peoples
on
the face
of the earth.
The LORD
did not
set His affection on you
and choose you
because you were more numerous
than the other
peoples,
for
you
were the fewest
of all
peoples.
But
because the LORD
loved
you
and kept
the oath
He swore
to your fathers,
He
brought you out
with a mighty
hand
and redeemed you
from the house
of slavery,
from the hand
of Pharaoh
king
of Egypt.
Know therefore
that
the LORD
your God
is God,
the faithful
God
who keeps
His covenant
with loving devotion
for a thousand
generations
of those who love Him
and keep
His commandments.
But those who hate Him
He repays
to
their faces
with destruction;
He will not
hesitate
to repay
to
his face
the one who hates Him.
If
you listen to
these
ordinances
and keep them carefully,
the LORD
your God
will keep
His covenant
with loving devotion,
as He swore
to your fathers.
He will love you
and bless you
and multiply you.
He will bless
the fruit
of your womb
and the produce
of your land—
your grain,
new wine,
and oil—
the young of your herds,
and the newborn
of your flocks,
in
the land
that
He swore
to your fathers
to give you.
You will be
blessed
above all
peoples;
among you
there will be
no
barren man
or woman
or livestock.
And the LORD
will remove
from you
all
sickness.
He will not
lay
upon you
any
of the terrible
diseases
you knew
in Egypt,
but He will inflict them
on all
who hate you.
You must destroy
all
the peoples
the LORD
your God
will deliver
to you.
Do not
look on them
with pity.
Do not
worship
their gods,
for
that
will be a snare
to
you.
But do not
be afraid
of them.
Be sure to remember
what
the LORD
your God
did
to Pharaoh
and all
Egypt:
the great
trials
that
you
saw,
the signs
and wonders,
and the mighty
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
now fear.
Moreover, the LORD
your God
will
send
the hornet
against them
until all the survivors
and those hiding
from you
have perished.
Do not
be terrified
by them,
for
the LORD
your God,
who is among you,
is a great
and awesome
God.
The LORD
your God
will drive out
these
nations
before you
little
by little.
You will not
be enabled
to eliminate
them all at once,
or
the wild
animals
would multiply
around you.
But the LORD
your God
will give them over
to you
and throw them
into great
confusion,
until
they are destroyed.
He will hand their kings
over to
you,
and you will wipe out
their names
from under
heaven.
No
one
will be able to stand
against you;
you will annihilate them.
You must burn up
the images
of their gods;
do not
covet
the silver
and gold
that is on them
or take it
for yourselves,
or
you will be ensnared by it;
for
it
is detestable
to the LORD
your God.
And you must not
bring
any detestable thing
into
your house,
or you, like it, will be
set apart for destruction.
You are to utterly detest
and abhor it,
because
it
is set apart for destruction.