Deuteronomy 7

A People Holy to the LORD

1“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess and clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you— 2and when the LORD your God gives them before you and you strike them, you shall devote them completely to destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show them no favor. 3You shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son, 4for he will turn your son away from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you and destroy you quickly. 5But thus you shall do to them: tear down their altars, shatter their pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images with fire. 6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be for him a treasured people from all the peoples who are on the face of the ground.

The LORD Set His Love upon You

7“It was not because you were more numerous than all the peoples that the LORD desired you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples. 8Rather, because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that the LORD your God—he is God, the faithful God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, 10but repaying those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not delay with one who hates him; to his face he will repay him. 11So you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments that I command you today, to do them.

Blessing for Covenant Faithfulness

12“And it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and steadfast love that he swore to your ancestors. 13He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, new wine, and oil, the offspring of your cattle and the increase of your flock, upon the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you. 14You will be blessed above all peoples. There will not be a barren male or female among you or among your livestock. 15The LORD will remove from you every sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt that you knew will he place upon you, but he will put them upon all who hate you. 16You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God gives to you. Your eye shall not pity them, and you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

Do Not Fear the Nations

17“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I am; how can I dispossess them?’ 18you shall not fear them. You shall surely remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the strong hand, and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So the LORD your God will do to all the peoples whom you fear. 20Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who remain and hide from you perish. 21You shall not be terrified before them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and fearsome God. 22The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to finish them quickly, lest the wild animals multiply against you. 23But the LORD your God will give them before you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. 24He will give their kings into your hand, and you shall cause their name to perish from under the heavens. No one will stand before you until you have destroyed them.

Do Not Bring a Detestable Thing into Your House

25“You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire. You shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them or take it for yourself, lest you be snared by it, for it is a detestable thing to the LORD your God. 26You shall not bring a detestable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.