Deuteronomy 7:1–6

A Chosen People

7“When the ^eLord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, ^fthe Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations ^gmore numerous and mightier than you, ^2hand when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must ⁱdevote them to complete destruction.^{1 j}You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ^3kYou shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. ^lThen the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you ^mquickly. ⁵But thus shall you deal with them: ⁿyou shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their ⁿpillars and chop down their ⁿAsherim and ^oburn their carved images with fire.

⁶“For ^pyou are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^pa people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.