Deuteronomy 7
1 When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possesse it, and shall roote out many nations before thee: the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, seuen nations greater and mightier then thou,
“Yahweh our God will bring you to the land that you will soon enter and occupy. As you advance, he will expel from that land seven people-groups that are more powerful and more numerous than you are. He will expel the Heth people-group, the Girgash people-group, the Amor people-group, the Canaan people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group.
2 And the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, then thou shalt smite them: thou shalt vtterly destroy them: thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor haue compassion on them,
When Yahweh our God enables you to defeat [DOU] them, you must kill all of them. You must not make (an alliance/a peace treaty) with any of them. You must not act mercifully toward them.
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, neither giue thy daughter vnto his sonne, nor take his daughter vnto thy sonne.
You must not marry any of them. You must not allow your daughters to marry any of their sons or allow your sons to marry any of their daughters.
4 For they wil cause thy sonne to turne away from me, and to serue other gods: then will the wrath of the Lord waxe hote against you and destroy thee suddenly.
Because, if you did that, those people would cause your children to stop worshiping Yahweh and to worship other gods. If that happens, Yahweh will be very angry with you and he will get rid of you immediately.
5 But thus ye shall deale with them, Ye shall ouerthrowe their altars, and breake downe their pillars, and ye shall cut downe their groues, and burne their grauen images with fire.
This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their (altars/places for sacrificing animals), break apart the stone pillars [that are dedicated to their male god Baal], cut down the [poles that they use when they worship the goddess] Asherah, and burn their [wooden] idols.
6 For thou art an holy people vnto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be a precious people vnto himselfe, aboue all people that are vpon the earth.
You must do that because you are a group of people who belong to Yahweh our God. He has chosen you from among all the people-groups in the world to be his own special people.
7 The Lord did not set his loue vpon you, nor chose you, because ye were more in number then any people: for ye were the fewest of all people:
“It was not because you were more numerous than any other people-group that Yahweh preferred you; you are one of the smallest people-groups on the earth.
8 But because the Lord loued you, and because hee would keepe the othe which hee had sworne vnto your fathers, the Lord hath brought you out by a mightie hand, and deliuered you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt,
Instead, it is because Yahweh loved you and because he wanted to do what he vowed to your ancestors. That is the reason that he rescued you by his great power [MTY], and freed you from being slaves [MTY] of the king of Egypt.
9 That thou mayest knowe, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithfull God which keepeth couenant and mercie vnto them that loue him and keepe his commandements, euen to a thousand generations,
So do not forget that Yahweh our God is the only/true God. He will do what he agreed to do for you, and he will faithfully love (for 1,000 generations/forever) all those who love him and who obey his commandments.
10 And rewardeth them to their face that hate him, to bring them to destruction: he wil not deferre to reward him that hateth him, to his face.
But for those who hate him, he will (pay them back/do to them what they deserve); he will punish them and quickly get rid of them.
11 Keepe thou therefore the commandements, and the ordinances, and the lawes, which I commaund thee this day to doe them.
“So you must be sure to obey all the commandments and rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.
12 For if ye hearken vnto these lawes, and obserue and doe them, then the Lord thy God shall keepe with thee the couenant, and the mercie which he sware vnto thy fathers.
If you heed these commands and obey them faithfully, Yahweh our God will do what he has agreed to do for you, and he will faithfully love you, which is what he vowed to your ancestors that he would do.
13 And he wil loue thee, and blesse thee, and multiplie thee: he will also blesse the fruite of thy wombe, and the fruite of thy land, thy corne and thy wine, and thine oyle and the increase of thy kine, and the flockes of thy sheepe in the land, which he sware vnto thy fathers to giue thee.
He will love you and bless you. He will enable you to have many children [DOU]. He will bless your fields, with the result that you will have plenty of grain and [grapes to make] wine and plenty of [olive] oil. You will have many cattle and sheep. He will do all these things for you in the land that he promised to your ancestors that he would give to you.
14 Thou shalt be blessed aboue all people: there shall be neither male nor female barren among you, nor among your cattell.
He will bless you more than he will bless any other people-group. All of you will be able to have/produce children [LIT]. All of your livestock will be able to produce offspring.
15 Moreouer, the Lord will take away from thee all infirmities, and will put none of the euill diseases of Egypt (which thou knowest) vpon thee, but wil send them vpon all that hate thee.
And Yahweh will protect you from all illnesses. You will not be afflicted with any of the dreadful diseases that [our ancestors knew about] in Egypt, but all your enemies will be inflicted with those diseases.
16 Thou shalt therefore consume all people which the Lord thy God shall giue thee: thine eye shall not spare them, neither shalt thou serue their gods, for that shalbe thy destruction.
You must get rid of all the people-groups that Yahweh our God will enable you to conquer. Do not [SYN] act mercifully toward any of them. And do not worship their gods, because if you do that, it would be like falling into a trap [from which you will never be able to escape].
17 If thou say in thine heart, These nations are moe then I, how can I cast them out?
“Do not think to yourselves, ‘These people-groups are more numerous/powerful than we are, so we certainly cannot [RHQ] expel them.’
18 Thou shalt not feare them, but remember what the Lord thy God did vnto Pharaoh, and vnto all Egypt:
Do not be afraid of them. Instead, think about what Yahweh our God did to the king of Egypt and to all the people whom he [ruled].
19 The great tentations which thine eyes sawe, and the signes and wonders, and the mighty hand and stretched out arme, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do vnto all ye people, whose face thou fearest.
Do not forget the terrible plagues that your ancestors saw [Yahweh inflict on the people of Egypt], and the many [DOU] miracles [that he performed], and the very powerful [DOU, MTY] way by which he brought your ancestors out [of Egypt]. Yahweh our God will do the same kind of things to the people-groups that you are afraid of now.
20 Moreouer, the Lord thy God will send hornets among them vntil they that are left, and hide themselues from thee, be destroyed.
Furthermore, he will cause them to become terrified, and he will destroy those who remain alive and run away to hide from you.
21 Thou shalt not feare them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a God mightie and dreadful.
Do not be afraid of those people, because Yahweh our God will be with/among you. He is a great God; he is the one you should be afraid of.
22 And the Lord thy God wil roote out these nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, least the beasts of the fielde increase vpon thee.
He will expel those people-groups gradually. You should not [try to] expel all of them at one time, because if you did that, the number of wild animals would quickly increase, [and you would not be able to get rid of them].
23 But the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, and shall destroy them with a mightie destruction, vntill they be brought to naught.
Instead, Yahweh will enable you to defeat your enemies [one people-group at a time]. He will cause them to panic until they are destroyed.
24 And he shall deliuer their Kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from vnder heauen: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, vntill thou hast destroyed them.
He will enable you to defeat [IDM] their kings. After you kill them, their names will be forgotten {people will forget about them}. No people-group will be able to stop you; you will destroy all of them.
25 The grauen images of their gods shall ye burne with fire, and couet not the siluer and golde, that is on them, nor take it vnto thee, least thou be snared therewith: for it is an abomination before the Lord thy God.
You must burn the wooden idols [that represent] their gods. Do not desire to take the silver or gold [decorations] that are on those idols, because if you take them for yourselves, they will be like a trap [to cause you to want to worship those idols]. Yahweh hates [the worship of those idols].
26 Bring not therefore abomination into thine house, lest, thou be accursed like it, but vtterly abhorre it, and count it most abominable: for it is accursed.
You must not bring any of those disgusting idols into your houses, because if you do that, God will curse you like he curses them. You must hate and despise [DOU] those idols, because they are things that [Yahweh] has cursed.”
