Deuteronomy 7–8

The ’s Own People

7^*“The Lord your God will bring you into the land which you are going to occupy, and he will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, he will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ²When the Lord your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. ³Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, ⁴because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods. If that happens, the Lord will be angry with you and destroy you at once. ^5*So then, tear down their altars, break their sacred stone pillars in pieces, cut down the symbols of their goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. ^6*Do this because you belong to the Lord your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.

⁷“The Lord did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. ⁸But the Lord loved you and wanted to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors. That is why he saved you by his great might and set you free from slavery to the king of Egypt. ^9*Remember that the Lord your God is the only God and that he is faithful. He will keep his covenant and show his constant love to a thousand generations of those who love him and obey his commands, ^10*but he will not hesitate to punish those who hate him. ¹¹So now, obey what you have been taught; obey all the laws that I have given you today.

The Blessings of Obedience

^12*“If you listen to these commands and obey them faithfully, then the Lord your God will continue to keep his covenant with you and will show you his constant love, as he promised your ancestors. ^13*He will love you and bless you, so that you will increase in number and have many children; he will bless your fields, so that you will have corn, wine, and olive oil; and he will bless you by giving you a lot of cattle and sheep. He will give you all these blessings in the land that he promised your ancestors he would give to you. ^14*No people in the world will be as richly blessed as you. None of you nor any of your livestock will be sterile. ^15*The Lord will protect you from all sickness, and he will not bring on you any of the dreadful diseases that you experienced in Egypt, but he will bring them on all your enemies. ^16*Destroy every nation that the Lord your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal.

¹⁷“Do not tell yourselves that these peoples outnumber you and that you cannot drive them out. ¹⁸Do not be afraid of them; remember what the Lord your God did to the king of Egypt and to all his people. ¹⁹Remember the terrible plagues that you saw with your own eyes, the miracles and wonders, and the great power and strength by which the Lord your God set you free. In the same way that he destroyed the Egyptians, he will destroy all these people that you now fear. ²⁰He will even cause panicⁱ among them and will destroy those who escape and go into hiding. ²¹So do not be afraid of these people. The Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and one to be feared. ²²Little by little he will drive out these nations as you advance. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, for, if you did, the number of wild animals would increase and be a threat to you. ²³The Lord will put your enemies in your power and make them panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴He will put their kings in your power. You will kill them, and they will be forgotten. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy everyone. ²⁵Burn their idols. Do not desire the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourselves. If you do, that will be fatal, because the Lord hates idolatry. ²⁶Do not bring any of these idols into your homes, or the same curse will be on you that is on them. You must hate and despise these idols, because they are under the Lord’s curse.

A Good Land to Be Possessed

8“Obey faithfully all the laws that I have given you today, so that you may live, increase in number, and occupy the land which the Lord promised to your ancestors. ²Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands. ^3*He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that human beings must not depend on bread alone to sustain them, but on everything that the Lord says. ⁴During these forty years your clothes have not worn out, nor have your feet swollen up. ⁵Remember that the Lord your God corrects and punishes you just as a father disciplines his children. ⁶So then, do as the Lord has commanded you: live according to his laws and obey him. ⁷The Lord your God is bringing you into a fertile land—a land that has rivers and springs, and underground streams gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸a land that produces wheat and barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and honey. ⁹There you will never go hungry or ever be in need. Its rocks have iron in them, and from its hills you can mine copper. ¹⁰You will have all you want to eat, and you will give thanks to the Lord your God for the fertile land that he has given you.

Warnings against Forgetting the Lord

^11*“Make certain that you do not forget the Lord your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. ^12*When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in ^13*and when your cattle and sheep, your silver and gold, and all your other possessions have increased, ^14*make sure that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ^15*He led you through that vast and terrifying desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. In that dry and waterless land he made water flow out of solid rock for you. ^16*In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things. ¹⁷So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. ¹⁸Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors. ¹⁹Never forget the Lord your God or turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰If you do not obey the Lord, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.