Chapter 7

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.