Deuteronomy 7–8

7“When Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter into it^a to take possession of it, and he drives^b out many nations before you,^c the Hittites^d and the Girgashites^e and the Amorites^f and the Canaanites^g​and the Perizzites and the Hivites^h and the Jebusites,ⁱ seven nations mightier and more numerous than you, ²and Yahweh your God will give them over to you^j and you defeat them, you must utterly destroy them;^k you shall not make a covenant with them, and you shall not show mercy to them. ³And you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to their son; and you shall not take his daughter for your son.^{l 4}For their^m sons and daughters will cause your sonⁿ to turn away from following me,^o and so they will serve other gods, and the anger of Yahweh would be kindled^p against you, and he would quickly destroy you. ⁵But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire. ⁶For you are a holy people for Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be for him a people, a treasured possession from among all the peoples that are on the face^q of the earth.

⁷“Yahweh loved you and chose you not because of your great number^r exceeding all other peoples, for you are fewer than all of the peoples, ⁸but^s because of^t the love of Yahweh for you and because of his keeping of the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors,^u Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. ⁹So know that Yahweh your God, he is God, the trustworthy God, maintaining his^v covenant and his^w loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations,^{x 10}but repaying those^y who hate him in their own person^z to destroy them;^a he is not slow with those who hate him in their own person;^b he repays them.^{c 11}And so you shall keep the commandment and the rules and the regulations that I am commanding you today^d to observe them.

¹²“And then^e because you listen to these regulations and you diligently keep and you do them, then Yahweh your God will maintain his^f covenant and his^g loyal love that he swore to your ancestors.^{h 13}And he will love you, and he will bless you, and he will multiply you, and he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil, your grain, your wine, and your olive oil, and newborn calves of your cattle, and the newborn lambsⁱ of your flocks in the land that he swore to your ancestors^j to give you. ¹⁴You shall be blessed more than all of the peoples; among you there shall not be sterility and bareness, even^k among domestic animals.^{l 15}And Yahweh will turn away from you all the illness and all the harmful diseases of Egypt that you experienced; he will not lay them on you, but he will lay them on all of those who hate you. ¹⁶And you shall devour all of the peoples that Yahweh your God is giving to you; you shall not pity them,^m and you shall not serve their gods, which will be a snare for you.

¹⁷“If you think in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I, so how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸then remember you must not be afraid of them; you must well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt: ¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the workings of the strong hand and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out; so Yahweh your God will do to all of the peoples because of whomⁿ you are in fear before them.^{o 20}And, moreover, Yahweh your God will send the hornets^p among them until both the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed^q before you.^{r 21}You must not be in dread from the presence of them, because Yahweh your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God. ²²And Yahweh your God will clear away these nations from before you^s little by little; you will not be able to finish them off quickly, lest^t the wild animals^u multiply^v against you.^{w 23}But Yahweh your God will give them to you,^x and he will throw them into great panic until they are destroyed.^{y 24}And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall blot out their names^z from under the heaven; anyone will not be able to stand against you^a until you destroy them.^{b 25}You shall burn the images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, and so you take it for yourself, so that you are not ensnared by it, for it is a detestable thing to Yahweh your God. ²⁶And you must not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you will become a thing devoted to destruction like it; you must utterly detest it, and you must utterly abhor it, for it is an object devoted to destruction.

8“All of the commandments^a that I am commanding you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and multiply, and you may go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors.^{b 2}And you shall remember all of the way that Yahweh your God led you during these forty years in the desert in order to humble you and to test you to know what is in your heart, whether you would diligently keep his commandments or not. ³And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and then he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors^c know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all that goes out^d of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live. ⁴Your clothing did not wear out on you,^e and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵And you should know with your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God is disciplining you.^{f 6}So you must keep the commandments of Yahweh your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. ⁷For Yahweh your God is bringing you to a good land with streams of water, springs and underground water, welling up in the valleys^g and in the hills,^{h 8}to a land of wheat and barley and vinesⁱ and fig trees^j and pomegranate trees,^k a land of olive trees,^l olive oil and honey; ⁹to a land where you may eat food in it without scarcity;^m you will not find anything lacking in it, a land where its stones are iron and from its mountains you can mine copper. ¹⁰And you will eat, and you will be satisfied,ⁿ and you will bless Yahweh your God because of the good land that he has given to you.

¹¹“Take care for yourself so that you not forget Yahweh your God by not keeping his commandments and his regulations and his statutes that I am commanding you today,^{o 12}lest when you have eaten and you are satisfied and you have built good houses and you live in them, ¹³and your herds and your flocks have multiplied, and you have accumulated silver and gold,^p and all that you have^q has multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart becomes proud^r and you forget Yahweh your God, the one who brought you out^s from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, ¹⁵the one leading you in the great and terrible desert infested with dangerous^t snakes^u and scorpions^v and parched ground, where there is^w no water, and the one bringing out water for you from flint rock, ¹⁶the one feeding you^x manna in the desert, food that your ancestors^y did not know, in order to humble you and in order to test you so that he could do good to you in the future.^{z 17}And you may think^a in your heart, ‘My strength and the might of my hand acquired this wealth for^b me.’ ¹⁸But you must remember Yahweh your God, for he is the one giving you strength to acquire wealth in order to confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors^c as it is today.^{d 19}And it will happen that if you indeed forget Yahweh your God and you go after other gods and you serve them and you bow down before them, I warn you today that you will surely perish. ²⁰As with the nations that Yahweh is destroying before you,^e so you shall perish because you would not obey the voice of Yahweh your God.