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Deuteronomy 7

1“When Yahweh your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and dislodges many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you— 2and Yahweh your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, you must devote them completely to destruction. You must not make a covenant with them or show them favor. 3You must not intermarry with them: do not give your daughter to his son or take his daughter for your son, 4because he will turn your son away from following me, and they will serve other gods. Then Yahweh’s anger will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you. 5Instead, this is what you must do to them: tear down their altars, smash their standing stones, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images in the fire. 6For you are a people holy to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God chose you to be his own treasured people out of all the peoples on the face of the ground.

7“Yahweh did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than all the peoples; you were the fewest of all the peoples. 8Rather, because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath he swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps the covenant and loyal love for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments, 10but repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not delay toward anyone who hates him; he will repay him to his face. 11So keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments I command you today, and carry them out.

12“If you listen to these judgments, keep them, and carry them out, Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and loyal love he swore to your fathers. 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 young of your flock, on the ground he swore to your fathers to give you. 14You will be blessed above all the peoples. No male or female among you or among your livestock will be infertile. 15Yahweh will remove all sickness from you. He will not put on you any of the terrible diseases of Egypt that you knew, but will put them on all who hate you. 16You must consume all the peoples Yahweh your God is giving you. Your eye must not pity them, and you must not serve their gods, because that would be a snare for you.

17“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I am. How can I drive them out?’ 18you must not fear them. Remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19the great trials your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm with which Yahweh your God brought you out. Yahweh your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear. 20Yahweh your God will also send the hornet among them, until those who remain and those who hide from you have perished. 21You must not be terrified of them, because Yahweh your God is among you, a great and fearsome God. 22Yahweh your God will dislodge these nations before you little by little. You cannot finish them off quickly, or the wild animals would multiply against you. 23Yahweh your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. 24He will give their kings into your hand, and you will make their name perish from under the heavens. No one will stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25You must burn the carved images of their gods in the fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them and take it for yourself, or you will be ensnared by it, because it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 26You must not bring an abomination into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You must utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, because it is devoted to destruction.

Translation notes 5

7:1–5, 16 — Destruction and intermarriage. The command to devote the nations to destruction has lethal force; it is not merely an instruction to avoid their customs. “Consume” in verse 16 preserves a further violent image. The marriage prohibition gives religious defection as its stated reason. Verse 4’s singular “he” can refer to the foreign relative; the Hebrew does not name him more precisely.

7:5–8 — Cult objects and treasured people. Asherah is associated with a goddess and her cult object; “poles” identifies the cuttable objects here without claiming their exact form is known. “Treasured people” expresses special possession. “Redeemed” describes release from slavery, not an unspecified spiritual transaction.

7:9–10 — A thousand generations and face-to-face repayment. Unlike 5:10, this verse expressly says “a thousand generations.” The traditional read spelling of “his commandments” is followed. “To their face” preserves the image of direct repayment; the singular pronouns in the next sentence individualize those who hate God.

7:13–15 — Bodily and agricultural blessing. “Fruit of your womb” retains the bodily image. Male and female infertility, herd increase, and disease are all explicit. These are the promises in this covenant address; the English does not recast them as a general guarantee to every later reader.

7:20–26 — Hornet and the devoted object. “Hornet” follows the insect term, whose use here may also have an image of divinely caused terror; the verse does not identify a particular foreign army. The devoted object and the person who brings it home share the status of being set apart for destruction.