¹⁶ You are to utterly destroy everyone whom the Lord your God will deliver to you. Don’t have pity on them nor serve their gods. Otherwise, they will become a snare for you.”

The Lord will Fight for You

¹⁷ “You may say to yourselves, ‘These nations are more numerous than we are. How can we dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ But you mustn’t fear them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt. ¹⁹ Your eyes saw the great trials, the signs and wonders, and the awesome power with which^[a] the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the people whom you fear. ²⁰ He’ll^[b] send plagues against them until the survivors who hide from you have perished. ²¹ Don’t tremble before them, because the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. ²² He^[c] slowly will dislodge these nations before you, but he won’t destroy them quickly, so the wild animals^[d] won’t multiply around you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will deliver kings into your control and you are to wipe out the memory of them^[e] from under heaven. No one will be able to stand before you. You are utterly to destroy them. ²⁵ Burn the images of their gods in the fire. Desire neither the silver nor the gold that adorns them, nor take them for yourselves, so you won’t be ensnared by them, because the gold and silver^[f] are detestable to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Don’t bring any detestable thing to your house, because you yourself will be utterly destroyed along with these detestable things. You must absolutely abhor and detest all of^[g] it, because it has been devoted to destruction.”