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 thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Emorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations, greater in number and mightier than thou;

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 thy God shall give them up before thee, and thou dost smite them: thou shalt utterly destroy them; thou shalt not make any 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 shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughters shalt thou not give unto his son, and his daughter shalt thou not take unto thy 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 he would turn away thy son from following me, so that they might serve other gods; and the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy thee speedily.

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 ye do unto them: their altars shall ye pull down, and their statues shall ye break, and their groves shall ye cut down, and their graven images shall ye burn 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 thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; of thee the Lord thy God hath made choice to be unto himself a special people, above all the nations 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.

Not because ye are more in number than all the nations, did the Lord desire you and make choice of you; for ye are the fewest of all the nations;

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 on account of the love of the Lord for you, and because he keepeth the oath which he hath sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bond-men, out of the hand of Pharaoh the 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 then that the Eternal thy God, is the God, the faithful God, who keepeth the covenant and the mercy with those that love him and with those that keep his commandments to the thousandth generation;

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

And repayeth those that hate him to their face, to destroy them; he will not delay to him that hateth 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.

Therefore shalt thou keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command thee 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.

And it shall come to pass in reward for that ye will hearken to these ordinances, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God will keep unto thee the covenant and the kindness which he hath sworn unto thy 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 thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; and he will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil, the increase of thy cattle, and the young of thy flocks, in the land which he hath sworn unto thy fathers to give unto thee.

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.

Blessed shalt thou be above all the nations; there shall not be a barren male or female among thee, nor among thy 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 thee all sickness; and all the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, will he not put upon thee; but he will lay them upon all those that hate thee.

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 thou shalt consume all the nations which the Lord thy God giveth unto thee; thy eye shall not look with pity upon them: and thou shalt not serve their gods; for that would be a snare unto thee.

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

If thou shouldst say in thy heart, These nations are more numerous than I: how shall I be able to 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:

Thou shalt not be afraid of them; [but] thou shalt well remember what the Lord thy 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 proofs which thy eyes have seen, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: in this wise will the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art 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 hornet will the Lord thy God send out against them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, 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.

Thou shalt not be affrighted at them; for the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty and terrible God.

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 thy God will chase out these nations before thee, little by little: thou shalt not be able to make an end of them speedily, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

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

And the Lord thy God will give them up before thee, and he will bring among them a mighty confusion, 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 will give their kings into thy hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under the heavens: no man shall be able to stand up before thee, until thou 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 ye burn with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver or gold that is on them, so that thou wouldst take it unto thyself, lest thou be ensnared thereby; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy 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.

And thou shalt not bring an abomination into thy house, lest thou become accursed like it: thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is accursed.