Deuteronomy 7
1 “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.
When Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land where thou go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than thou,
2 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.
and when Jehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shall smite them, then thou shall utterly destroy them. Thou shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
3 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.
Neither shall thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shall not give to his son, nor his daughter shall thou take to thy son.
4 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.
For he will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods, so the anger of Jehovah will be kindled against you, and he will destroy thee quickly.
5 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.
But thus shall ye deal with them: Ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.
6 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.
For thou are a holy people to Jehovah thy God. Jehovah thy God has chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
7 “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.
Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all peoples,
8 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.
but because Jehovah loves you. And because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Jehovah has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 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.
Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
10 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.
and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
11 “So you must be sure to obey all the commandments and rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.
Thou shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command thee this day, to do them.
12 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.
And it shall come to pass, because ye hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Jehovah thy God will keep with thee the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to thy fathers.
13 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.
And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground, thy grain and thy new wine and thine oil, the increase of thy cattle and the young of thy flock, in the land which he swore to thy fathers to give thee.
14 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.
Thou shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 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.
And Jehovah will take away from thee all sickness. And none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou know, will he put upon thee, but will lay them upon all those who hate thee.
16 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].
And thou shall consume all the peoples that Jehovah thy God shall deliver to thee. Thine eye shall not pity them. Neither shall thou serve their gods, for that will be a snare to thee.
17 “Do not think to yourselves, ‘These people-groups are more numerous/powerful than we are, so we certainly cannot [RHQ] expel them.’
If thou shall say in thy heart, These nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them?
18 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].
Thou shall not be afraid of them. Thou shall remember well what Jehovah thy God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt:
19 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.
the great trials which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which Jehovah thy God brought thee out. So shall Jehovah thy God do to all the peoples of whom thou are afraid.
20 Furthermore, he will cause them to become terrified, and he will destroy those who remain alive and run away to hide from you.
Moreover Jehovah thy God will send the hornet among them until those who are left and hide themselves perish from before thee.
21 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.
Thou shall not be frightened at them, for Jehovah thy God is in the midst of thee, a great God and awesome.
22 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].
And Jehovah thy God will cast out those nations before thee little by little. Thou may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
23 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.
But Jehovah thy God will deliver them up before thee, and will discomfit them with a great confusion until they be destroyed.
24 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.
And he will deliver their kings into thy hand, and thou shall make their name to perish from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
25 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].
Ye shall burn the graven images of their gods with fire. Thou shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it to thee, lest thou be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Jehovah thy God.
26 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.”
And thou shall not bring an abomination into thy house, and become a devoted thing like it. Thou shall utterly detest it, and thou shall utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.
