Deuteronomy 7

1 The Lord your God is going to lead you into the land that you are taking over in order to own it, and will drive out ahead of you many other nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations that are larger and stronger than you.

When the LORD your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you;

2 When the Lord your God has handed them over to you to defeat them, then you must set them apart for destruction. Don't make any peace treaty with them and don't show them any mercy.

And when the LORD your God shall deliver them before you; you shall strike them, and utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:

3 Don't intermarry with them. Don't let your daughters marry their sons or have their daughters marry your sons,

Neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall you take unto your son.

4 because they will lead your children away from following me to worship other gods. Then the Lord will be angry with you, and he will quickly come and kill you.

For they will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy you suddenly.

5 On the contrary, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, knock down their idolatrous pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn down their idols.

But thus shall all of you deal with them; all of you shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

6 For you are the Lord your God's holy people. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special people, valued above all other peoples on the earth.

For you are an holy people unto the LORD your God: the LORD your God has chosen you to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

7 It wasn't because there were so many of you that the Lord loved you more than any other nation, in fact he chose you though there were so few of you.

The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because all of you were more in number than any people; for all of you were the few of all people:

8 However, because the Lord loved you and kept the promise he gave to your forefathers, He led you out by his power and rescued you from the prison-house of slavery, from the rule of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, has the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 That's why you can be sure that the Lord your God is the true God, the faithful God who keeps his agreement based on trustworthy love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

10 But he doesn't hesitate to pay back those who hate him by destroying them.

And repays them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hates him, he will repay him to his face.

11 So keep the commandments and rules and regulations that I'm giving you to follow today.

You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command you this day, to do them.

12 If you listen to these regulations and are careful to observe them, then the Lord your God will keep his agreement and the trustworthy love that he promised to your forefathers.

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if all of you hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD your God shall keep unto you the covenant and the mercy which he swore unto your fathers:

13 He will love you and bless you and give you many descendants. He will bless your children and the crops your land produces—your grain, new wine, and olive oil, the calves of your cattle herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that he promised your forefathers to give you.

And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you: he will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which he swore unto your fathers to give you.

14 You will be blessed more than any other nation; none of you will be childless, and none of your livestock will fail to have young.

You shall be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

15 The Lord will keep you from having any kind of sickness. He will not let you have any of the terrible diseases you saw in Egypt, but he will let all who hate you suffer from them.

And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all them that hate you.

16 You are to destroy all the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Don't look on them with sympathy. Don't worship their gods, for that will end up being a trap to you.

And you shall consume all the people which the LORD your God shall deliver you; your eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto you.

17 You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than us. How on earth can we drive them out?”

If you shall say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18 But don't be afraid of them. Make sure you remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and the whole of Egypt:

You shall not be afraid of them: but shall well remember what the LORD your God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

19 the amazing tests you witnessed, the signs and miracles, the great power and incredible strength the Lord your God used to lead you out. The Lord your God is going to deal with all the nations you're currently afraid of in the same way.

The great temptations which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD your God brought you out: so shall the LORD your God do unto all the people of whom you are afraid.

20 On top of this, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them until anyone who has survived and anyone hiding from you have been killed.

Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from you, be destroyed.

21 Don't be frightened of these nations, for the Lord your God, who is with you, is a powerful and awesome God.

You shall not be affrighted at them: for the LORD your God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

22 The Lord your God will drive out these nations ahead of you in stages. You won't be able to get rid of them all at the same time, or you'd be overwhelmed by wild animals.

And the LORD your God will put out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you.

23 But the Lord your God will hand them over to you and throw them into a terrible panic, until they are wiped out.

But the LORD your God shall deliver them unto you, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

24 He will give their defeated kings to you to be killed, and even their names will be forgotten. No one will be able to withstand you; you will completely destroy them.

And he shall deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.

25 You must burn the idols of their god. Don't desire the silver and gold that covers them. Don't take it or otherwise it will be a trap for you because the Lord your God detests anything to do with idols.

The graven images of their gods shall all of you burn with fire: you shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto you, lest you be snared therin: for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

26 Don't bring any detestable idol into your house, otherwise you will treated just like it—by being set apart for destruction. You are to treat idols as totally despicable, and stay far away from them, because they are set apart for destruction.

Neither shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be a cursed thing like it: but you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly detest it; for it is a cursed thing.