Warnings

7 “^(A)When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to take possession of it, and He drives away many nations from before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, ^(B)seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God turns them over to you and you ^[a]defeat them, ^(C)you shall ^[b]utterly destroy them. ^(D)You shall not make a covenant with them ^(E)nor be gracious to them. ³ Furthermore, ^(F)you shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your ^[c]daughters to ^[d]their sons, nor shall you take ^[e]their daughters for your ^[f]sons. ⁴ For ^[g]they will turn your ^[h]sons away from ^[i]following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and ^(G)He will quickly destroy you. ⁵ But this is what you shall do to them: ^(H)you shall tear down their altars, smash their memorial stones, cut their ^[j]Asherim to pieces, and burn their carved images in the fire.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you ^(A)take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(B)I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One ^(C)from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman. ^16 (D)In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he ^(E)make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since ^(F)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷ And ^(G)he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.