The Lord Will Drive Many Nations Out

7 The 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.