Deuteronomy 7

1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

And when the Lord your God shall bring you into the land, into which you go to possess it, and shall remove great nations from before you, the Chettite, and Gergesite, and Amorite, and Chananite, and Pherezite, and Evite, and Jebusite, seven nations [more] numerous and stronger than you,

2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

and the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands, then you shall strike them: you shall utterly destroy them: you shall not make a covenant with them, neither shall you pity them:

3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

neither shall you contract marriages with them: you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter to your son.

4 because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

For he will draw away your son from me, and he will serve other gods; and the Lord will be very angry with you, and will soon utterly destroy you.

5 Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

But thus shall you do to them; you shall destroy their altars, and shall break down their pillars, and shall cut down their groves, and shall burn with fire the graven images of their gods.

6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord your God chose you to be to him a peculiar people beyond all nations that [are] upon the face of the earth.

7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

It was not because you are more numerous than all [other] nations that the Lord preferred you, and the Lord made choice of you: for you are fewer in number than all [other] nations.

8 But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

But because the Lord loved you, and as keeping the oath which he sware to your fathers, the Lord brought you out with a strong hand, and the Lord redeemed you from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharao king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

You shall know therefore, that the Lord your God, he [is] God, a faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him, and for those that keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

10 But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

and who recompenses them that hate him to their face, to destroy them utterly; and will not be slack with them that hate him: he will recompense them to their face.

11 So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.

You shall keep therefore the commands, and the ordinances, and these judgments, which I command you this day to do.

12 If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers.

And it shall come to pass when you shall have heard these ordinances, and shall have kept and done them, that the Lord your God shall keep for you the covenant and the mercy, which he sware to your fathers.

13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; and he will bless the off-spring of your body, and the fruit of your land, your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep, on the land which the Lord sware to your fathers to give to you.

14 You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

You shall be blessed beyond all nations; there shall not be among you an impotent or barren one, or among your cattle.

15 And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.

And the Lord your God shall remove from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you have seen, and all that you have known, will he lay upon you; but he will lay them upon all that hate you.

16 You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

And you shall eat all the spoils of the nations which the Lord your God gives you; your eye shall not spare them, and you shall not serve their gods; for this is an offense to you.

17 You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”

But if you should say in your heart, This nation [is] greater than I, how shall I be able to destroy them utterly?

18 But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:

you shall not fear them; you shall surely remember all that the Lord your God did to Pharao and to all the Egyptians:

19 the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

the great temptations which your eyes have seen, those signs and great wonders, the strong hand, and the high arm; how the Lord your God brought you forth: so the Lord your God will do to all the nations, whom you fear in their presence.

20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.

And the Lord your God shall send against them the hornets, until they that are left and they that are hidden from you be utterly destroyed.

21 Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

You shall not be wounded before them, because the Lord your God in the midst of you [is] a great and powerful God.

22 The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.

And the Lord your God shall consume these nations before you by little and little: you shall not be able to consume them speedily, lest the land become desert, and the wild beasts of the field be multiplied against you.

23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

And the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands, and you shall destroy them with a great destruction, until you shall have utterly destroyed them.

24 He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.

And he shall deliver their kings into your hands, and you shall destroy their name from that place; none shall stand up in opposition before you, until you shall have utterly destroyed them.

25 You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

You shall burn with fire the graven images of their gods: you shall not covet [their] silver, neither shall you take to yourself gold from them, lest you should offend thereby, because it is an abomination to the Lord your God.

26 And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, so should you be an accursed thing like it; you shall utterly hate it, and altogether abominate it, because it is an accursed thing.