Warnings

1 “aWhen the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, bseven nations greater and stronger than you,

2 and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you 1defeat them, athen you shall 2utterly destroy them. bYou shall make no covenant with them cand show no favor to them.

3 “Furthermore, ayou shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your 1daughters to 2their sons, nor shall you take 3their daughters for your 4sons.

4 “For 1they will turn your 2sons away from 3following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and aHe will quickly destroy you.

5 “But thus you shall do to them: ayou shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their 1Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.

6 “For you are aa holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be ba people for His 1own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the 2earth.

7 “aThe Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the aoath which He swore to your forefathers, bthe Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of 1slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 “Know therefore that the Lord your God, aHe is God, bthe faithful God, cwho keeps 1His covenant and 1His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who dlove Him and keep His commandments;

10 but arepays those who hate Him to 1their faces, to destroy 2them; He will not delay 3with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

11 “Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Promises of God

12 “aThen it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you 1His covenant and 1His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers.

13 “He will alove you and bless you and bmultiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, 1in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.

14 “You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female abarren among you or among your cattle.

15 “aThe Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you.

16 “You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; ayour eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be ba snare to you.

17 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I adispossess them?’

18 you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well aremember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

19 athe great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

20 “Moreover, the Lord your God will send athe hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.

21 “You shall not dread 1them, for athe Lord your God is in your midst, ba great and awesome God.

22 “aThe Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the 1wild beasts would grow too numerous for you.

23 “aBut the Lord your God will deliver them before you, and will 1throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

24 “aHe will deliver their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; bno man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.

25 “The graven images of their gods you are to aburn with fire; you shall bnot covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be csnared by it, for it is an dabomination to the Lord your God.

26 “You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the aban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.

Chapter 8

God’s Gracious Dealings

1 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you amay live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers.

2 “aYou shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has bled you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, ctesting you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you 1understand that aman does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

4 “aYour clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

5 “aThus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

6 “Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to 1fear Him.

7 “For athe Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

9 a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 “When ayou have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

11 “1Beware that you do not aforget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today;

12 otherwise, awhen you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them,

13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies,

14 then your heart will become 1proud and you will aforget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of 2slavery.

15 “He led you through athe great and terrible wilderness, with its bfiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He cbrought water for you out of the rock of flint.

16 “In the wilderness He fed you manna awhich your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might btest you, to do good for you 1in the end.

17 “Otherwise, ayou may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’

18 “But you shall remember the Lord your God, for ait is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

19 “It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, aI testify against you today that you will surely perish.

20 “Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so ayou shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.