¹The Lord your God will bring you to the land you’re about to enter and take possession of. He will force many nations out of your way: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations larger and more powerful than you. ²When the Lord your God gives them to you and you defeat them, destroy every one of them because they have been claimed by the Lord. Don’t make any treaties with them or show them any mercy. ³Never marry any of them. Never let your daughters marry their sons or your sons marry their daughters. ⁴These people will turn your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the Lord will get very angry with you and will quickly destroy you.

⁵But this is what you must do to these people: Tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. ⁶You are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. He chose you to be his own special possession out of all the nations on earth.

⁷The Lord set his heart on you and chose you, even though you didn’t outnumber all the other people. You were the smallest of all nations. ⁸You were chosen because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors. So he used his mighty hand to bring you out. He freed you from slavery under Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). ⁹Keep in mind that the Lord your God is ⸤the only⸥ God. He is a faithful God, who keeps his promise^aand is merciful to thousands of generations of those who love him and obey his commands. ¹⁰But he sends destruction to pay back everyone who hates him. He never takes long to pay back anyone who hates him.

¹¹So obey the commands, laws, and rules I’m giving you today.

¹²If you listen to these rules and faithfully obey them, the Lord your God will keep his promise to you and be merciful to you, as he swore to your ancestors. ¹³He will love you, bless you, and increase the number of your descendants. He will bless you with children. He will bless your land with produce: grain, new wine, and olive oil. He will bless your herds with calves, and your flocks with lambs and kids. This will all happen in the land the Lord will give you, as he swore to your ancestors. ¹⁴You will be blessed more than any other people. Your men and women will be able to have children, and your animals will be able to have offspring. ¹⁵The Lord will keep you from having any kind of illness. He will not strike you with any of the terrible diseases you experienced in Egypt. Instead, he will strike all those who hate you. ¹⁶You must destroy all the people the Lord your God hands over to you. Have no pity on them, and never worship their gods, because they will be a trap for you.

¹⁷You may say to yourselves, “These nations outnumber us. How can we force them out?” ¹⁸Don’t be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt. ¹⁹You saw with your own eyes the terrible plagues, the miraculous signs, and the amazing things the Lord did. He used his mighty hand and powerful arm to bring you out. He will do the same thing to all the people you’re afraid of. ²⁰The Lord your God will spread panic among them until they all die. There will be no one left—not even those who were hiding from you. ²¹Don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is with you. He is a great and awe-inspiring God. ²²Little by little he will force these nations out of your way. You won’t be able to wipe them out quickly. Otherwise, you would be overrun with wild animals. ²³The Lord your God will hand these people over to you and will throw them into a great panic until they’re destroyed. ²⁴He will hand their kings over to you, and no one on earth will even remember their names. No one will be able to stop you. You will destroy them all. ²⁵Burn their idols. Don’t ever long for the silver and gold on these idols or take any of it for yourselves. It might be a trap for you. Besides, these idols are disgusting to the Lord your God. ²⁶Never bring a disgusting idol into your house. If you do, you and the idol will be destroyed. Consider it detestable and disgusting. It must be destroyed.”

8TH CHAPTER

Israel Told Never to Forget God

¹Be careful to obey every command I give you today. Then you will live, and your population will increase. You will enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors with an oath.

²Remember that for 40 years the Lord your God led you on your journey in the desert. He did this in order to humble you and test you. He wanted to know whether or not you would wholeheartedly obey his commands. ³So he made you suffer from hunger and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had seen before. He did this to teach you that a person cannot live on bread alone but on every word that the Lord speaks. ⁴Your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t swell these past 40 years. ⁵Learn this lesson by heart: The Lord your God was disciplining you as parents discipline their children. ⁶Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Follow his directions, and fear him.

⁷The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It is a land with rivers that don’t dry up. There are springs and underground streams flowing through the valleys and hills. ⁸The land has wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates. The land has honey and olive trees for olive oil. ⁹The land will have enough food for you, and you will have everything you need. The land has rocks with iron ore, and you will be able to mine copper ore in the hills. ¹⁰When you have eaten all you want, thank the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

¹¹Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, rules, and laws that I’m giving you today. ¹²You will eat all you want. You will build nice houses and live in them. ¹³Your herds and flocks, silver and gold, and everything else you have will increase. ¹⁴When this happens, be careful that you don’t become arrogant and forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. ¹⁵He was the one who led you through that vast and dangerous desert—a thirsty and arid land, with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He was the one who made water come out of solid rock for you. ¹⁶He was the one who fed you in the desert with manna, which your ancestors had never seen. He did this in order to humble you and test you. But he also did this so that things would go well for you in the end. ¹⁷You may say to yourselves, “I became wealthy because of my own ability and strength.” ¹⁸But remember the Lord your God is the one who makes you wealthy. He’s confirming the promise^awhich he swore to your ancestors. It’s still in effect today.

¹⁹I warn you today that if you forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, and if you serve them and bow down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰The Lord is going to destroy other nations as you enter the land. You will be destroyed like them if you don’t obey the Lord your God.

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Footnotes

a 7:9 Or “covenant.”
a 8:18 Or “covenant.”