Chapter 7

Destruction of the Nations in the Land. ^1 (A)When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which you are about to enter to possess, and removes many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,^(B) seven nations more numerous and powerful than you— ² and when the Lord, your God, gives them over to you and you defeat them, you shall put them under the ban. Make no covenant with them^(C) and do not be gracious to them.

Warning Against Abominable Practices. ^29 (A)When the Lord, your God, cuts down from before you the nations you are going in to dispossess, and you have dispossessed them and are settled in their land, ³⁰ be careful that you not be trapped into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire regarding their gods, “How did these nations serve their gods, so I might do the same.” ³¹ You shall not worship the Lord, your God, that way, because they offered to their gods every abomination that the Lord detests, even burning their sons and daughters to their gods.^(B)

^40 (A)Joshua conquered the entire land; the mountain regions, the Negeb, the Shephelah, and the mountain slopes, with all their kings. He left no survivors, but put under the ban every living being, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded.

¹¹ He also struck down with the sword every person there, carrying out the ban, till none was left alive. Hazor itself he burned.

¹⁴ All the spoil and livestock of these cities the Israelites took as plunder; but the people they put to the sword, until they had destroyed the last of them, leaving none alive.