7The Lord your God will bring you into the land. You are going to enter it and take it as your own. He’ll drive many nations out to make room for you. He’ll drive out the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Those seven nations are larger and stronger than you are.

²The Lord your God will hand them over to you. You will win the battle over them. You must completely destroy them. Don’t make a peace treaty with them. Don’t show them any mercy. ³Don’t get married to any of them. Don’t give your daughters to their sons. And don’t take their daughters for your sons. ⁴If you do, those people will turn your children away from following the Lord. Then your children will serve other gods. The Lord’s anger will burn against you. It will quickly destroy you.

⁵So here is what you must do to those people. Break down their altars. Smash their sacred stones. Cut down the poles they use to worship the goddess Asherah. Burn the statues of their gods in the fire.

⁶You are a holy nation. The Lord your God has set you apart for himself. He has chosen you to be his special treasure. He chose you out of all of the nations on the face of the earth to be his people.

⁷The Lord chose you because he loved you very much. He didn’t choose you because you had more people than other nations. In fact, you had the smallest number of all.

⁸The Lord chose you because he loved you. He wanted to keep the promise he had made with an oath to your people long ago. That’s why he brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He bought you back from the land where you were slaves. He set you free from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

⁹So I want you to realize that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his covenant for all time to come. He keeps it with those who love him and obey his commands. He shows them his love. ¹⁰But he will pay back those who hate him. He’ll destroy them. He’ll quickly pay back those who hate him. ¹¹So be careful to follow the commands, rules and laws I’m giving you today.

¹²Pay attention to the laws of the Lord your God. Be careful to obey them. Then he will keep his covenant of love with you. That’s what he promised with an oath to your people long ago.

¹³The Lord will love you and bless you. He’ll increase your numbers. He’ll give you many children. He’ll bless the crops of your land. He’ll give you plenty of grain, olive oil and fresh wine. He’ll bless your herds with many calves. He’ll give your flocks many lambs. He’ll do all of those things for you in the land of Canaan. It’s the land he promised your people long ago that he would give you. ¹⁴He will bless you more than any other nation. All of your men and women will have children. All of your livestock will have little ones.

¹⁵The Lord will keep you from getting sick. He won’t send on you any of the horrible sicknesses you saw all around you in Egypt. But he’ll send them on everyone who hates you.

¹⁶You must destroy all of the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Don’t feel sorry for them. Don’t serve their gods. If you do, they will be a trap for you.

¹⁷You might say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” ¹⁸But don’t be afraid of them.

Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all of the Egyptians. ¹⁹With your own eyes you saw what the Lord did to them. You saw his miraculous signs and wonders. He reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm. The Lord your God used all of those things to bring you out. He will do the same things to all of the nations you are now afraid of.

²⁰The Lord your God will also send hornets among them. Some of the people who are left alive will hide from you. But even they will die. ²¹So don’t be terrified by them. The Lord your God is with you. He is a great and wonderful God.

²²The Lord your God will drive out those nations to make room for you. But he will do it little by little. You won’t be allowed to get rid of them all at once. If you did, wild animals would multiply all around you.

²³But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you. He will throw them into a panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴He will hand their kings over to you. You will wipe out their names from the earth. No one will be able to stand up against you. You will destroy them.

²⁵Burn the statues of their gods in the fire. Don’t long for the silver and gold that is on those statues. Don’t take it for yourselves. If you do, it will be a trap for you. The Lord your God hates it. ²⁶Don’t bring anything he hates into your house. If you do, you will be completely destroyed along with it. So hate it with all your heart. It is set apart to be destroyed.

Remember What the Lord Has Done

8Make sure you follow every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live. You will increase your numbers. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the Lord promised with an oath to your people long ago.

²Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to put you to the test and know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands.

³He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell.

⁵Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The Lord your God trains you, just as parents train their children.

⁶Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him.

⁷The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It has streams and pools of water. Springs flow in its valleys and hills. ⁸It has wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. ⁹There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills.

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Make sure you don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I’m giving them to you today.

¹²But suppose you don’t obey his commands. And suppose you have plenty to eat. You build fine houses and settle down in them. ¹³Your herds and flocks increase their numbers. You also get more and more silver and gold. And everything you have multiplies. ¹⁴Then your hearts will become proud. And you will forget the Lord your God.

The Lord brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves. ¹⁵He led you through that huge and terrible desert. It was a dry land. It didn’t have any water. It had poisonous snakes and scorpions. The Lord gave you water out of solid rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Your parents had never even known anything about manna before.

The Lord took your pride away. He put you to the test. He did it so that things would go well with you in the end. ¹⁷You might say to yourselves, “Our power and our strong hands have made us rich.”

¹⁸But remember the Lord your God. He gives you the ability to produce wealth. That shows he stands by the terms of his covenant. He promised it with an oath to your people long ago. And he’s still faithful to his covenant today.

¹⁹Don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them and bow down to them. I give witness against you today that if you do, you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰You will be destroyed just like the nations the Lord your God is destroying to make room for you. That’s what will happen if you don’t obey him.

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