Deuteronomy 7
English Standard Version Anglicised
A Chosen People
7 “When the (A)Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, (B)the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations (C)more numerous and mightier than yourselves, 2 (D)and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must (E)devote them to complete destruction.[a] (F)You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 (G)You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. (H)Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you (I)quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: (J)you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their (K)pillars and chop down their (L)Asherim and (M)burn their carved images with fire.
6 “For (N)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be (O)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but (P)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping (Q)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, (R)the faithful God (S)who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and (T)repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. (U)He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 (V)You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
12 (W)“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you (X)the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will (Y)love you, bless you, and multiply you. (Z)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. (AA)There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil (AB)diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And (AC)you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. (AD)Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be (AE)a snare to you.
17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 (AF)you shall not be afraid of them but you shall (AG)remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, (AH)the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, (AI)the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is (AJ)in your midst, (AK)a great and awesome God. 22 (AL)The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,[b] lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 (AM)But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And (AN)he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall (AO)make their name perish from under heaven. (AP)No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 The carved images of their gods (AQ)you shall burn with fire. You (AR)shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be (AS)ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction[c] like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, (AT)for it is devoted to destruction.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 7:2 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
- Deuteronomy 7:22 Or quickly
- Deuteronomy 7:26 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); twice in this verse
Deuteronomy 7
The Message
7 1-2 When God, your God, brings you into the country that you are about to enter and take over, he will clear out the superpowers that were there before you: the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Those seven nations are all bigger and stronger than you are. God, your God, will turn them over to you and you will conquer them. You must completely destroy them, offering them up as a holy destruction to God.
Don’t make a treaty with them.
Don’t let them off in any way.
3-4 Don’t marry them: Don’t give your daughters to their sons and don’t take their daughters for your sons—before you know it they’d involve you in worshiping their gods, and God would explode in anger, putting a quick end to you.
5 Here’s what you are to do:
Tear apart their altars stone by stone,
smash their phallic pillars,
chop down their sex-and-religion Asherah groves,
set fire to their carved god-images.
6 Do this because you are a people set apart as holy to God, your God. God, your God, chose you out of all the people on Earth for himself as a cherished, personal treasure.
7-10 God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors. God stepped in and mightily bought you back out of that world of slavery, freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations. But he also pays back those who hate him, pays them the wages of death; he isn’t slow to pay them off—those who hate him, he pays right on time.
11 So keep the command and the rules and regulations that I command you today. Do them.
12-13 And this is what will happen: When you, on your part, will obey these directives, keeping and following them, God, on his part, will keep the covenant of loyal love that he made with your ancestors:
He will love you,
he will bless you,
he will increase you.
13-15 He will bless the babies from your womb and the harvest of grain, new wine, and oil from your fields; he’ll bless the calves from your herds and lambs from your flocks in the country he promised your ancestors that he’d give you. You’ll be blessed beyond all other peoples: no sterility or barrenness in you or your animals. God will get rid of all sickness. And all the evil afflictions you experienced in Egypt he’ll put not on you but on those who hate you.
16 You’ll make mincemeat of all the peoples that God, your God, hands over to you. Don’t feel sorry for them. And don’t worship their gods—they’ll trap you for sure.
17-19 You’re going to think to yourselves, “Oh! We’re outnumbered ten to one by these nations! We’ll never even make a dent in them!” But I’m telling you, Don’t be afraid. Remember, yes, remember in detail what God, your God, did to Pharaoh and all Egypt. Remember the great contests to which you were eyewitnesses: the miracle-signs, the wonders, God’s mighty hand as he stretched out his arm and took you out of there. God, your God, is going to do the same thing to these people you’re now so afraid of.
20 And to top it off, the Hornet. God will unleash the Hornet on them until every survivor-in-hiding is dead.
21-24 So don’t be intimidated by them. God, your God, is among you—majestic God, awesome God. God, your God, will get rid of these nations, bit by bit. You won’t be permitted to wipe them out all at once lest the wild animals take over and overwhelm you. But God, your God, will move them out of your way—he’ll throw them into a huge panic until there’s nothing left of them. He’ll turn their kings over to you and you’ll remove all trace of them under Heaven. Not one person will be able to stand up to you; you’ll put an end to them all.
25-26 Make sure you set fire to their carved gods. Don’t get greedy for the veneer of silver and gold on them and take it for yourselves—you’ll get trapped by it for sure. God hates it; it’s an abomination to God, your God. And don’t dare bring one of these abominations home or you’ll end up just like it, burned up as a holy destruction. No: It is forbidden! Hate it. Abominate it. Destroy it and preserve God’s holiness.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson