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 Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land whither thou art going in to possess it, and He hath cast out many nations from thy presence, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mighty 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 Jehovah thy God hath given them before thee, and thou hast smitten them — thou dost utterly devote them — thou dost not make with them a covenant, nor dost thou favour them.
3 Don't intermarry with them. Don't let your daughters marry their sons or have their daughters marry your sons,
'And thou dost not join in marriage with them; thy daughter thou dost not give to his son, and his daughter thou dost not take to 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 doth turn aside thy son from after Me, and they have served other gods, and the anger of Jehovah hath burned against you, and hath destroyed thee hastily.
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 thou dost to them: their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and their shrines ye cut down, and their graven images 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 a holy people [art] thou to Jehovah thy God; on thee hath Jehovah thy God fixed, to be to Him for a peculiar people, out of all the peoples who [are] on the face of the ground.
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 of your being more numerous than any of the peoples hath Jehovah delighted in you, and fixeth on you, for ye [are] the least of all the peoples,
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 of Jehovah's loving you, and because of His keeping the oath which He hath sworn to your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out by a strong hand, and doth ransom you from a house of servants, 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.
'And thou hast known that Jehovah thy God He [is] God, the faithful God, keeping the covenant, and the kindness, to those loving Him, and to those keeping His commands — to a thousand generations,
10 But he doesn't hesitate to pay back those who hate him by destroying them.
and repaying to those hating Him, unto their face, to destroy them; He delayeth not to him who is hating Him — unto his face, He repayeth to him —
11 So keep the commandments and rules and regulations that I'm giving you to follow today.
and thou hast kept the command, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I am commanding thee to-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 hath been, because ye hear these judgments, and have kept, and done them, that Jehovah thy God hath kept to thee the covenant and the kindness which He hath sworn to 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 hath loved thee, and blessed thee, and multiplied thee, and hath blessed the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, thy corn, and thy new wine, and thine oil, the increase of thine oxen, and the wealth of thy flock, on the ground which He hath sworn to thy fathers to give to 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 art thou above all the peoples, there is not in thee a barren man or a barren woman — nor 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 Jehovah hath turned aside from thee every sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which thou hast known) doth He put on thee, and He hath put them on all hating 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 hast consumed all the peoples whom Jehovah thy God is giving to thee; thine eye hath no pity on them, and thou dost not serve their gods, for a snare it [is] to thee.
17 You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than us. How on earth can we drive them out?”
'When thou sayest in thine heart, These nations [are] more numerous than I, how am I 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 art not afraid of them; thou dost surely remember that which Jehovah thy God hath done to Pharaoh, and to 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 trials which thine eyes have seen, and the signs, and the wonders, and the strong hand, and the stretched-out arm, with which Jehovah thy God hath brought thee out; so doth Jehovah thy God to all the peoples of whose presence 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.
'And also the locust doth Jehovah thy God send among them, till the destruction of those who are left, and of those who are hidden from thy presence;
21 Don't be frightened of these nations, for the Lord your God, who is with you, is a powerful and awesome God.
thou art not terrified by their presence, for Jehovah thy God [is] in thy midst, a God great and fearful.
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 Jehovah thy God hath cast out these nations from thy presence little [by] little, (thou art not able to consume them hastily, lest the beast of the field multiply against 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 Jehovah thy God hath given them before thee, and destroyed them — a great destruction — till their destruction;
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 hath given their kings into thy hand, and thou hast destroyed their name from under the heavens; no man doth station himself in thy presence till thou hast 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 ye do burn with fire; thou dost not desire the silver and gold on them, nor hast thou taken [it] to thyself, lest thou be snared by it, for the abomination of Jehovah thy God it [is];
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 dost not bring in an abomination unto thy house — or thou hast been devoted like it; — thou dost utterly detest it, and thou dost utterly abominate it; for it [is] devoted.
