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 your God YHWH brings you into the land to where you are going in to possess it, and He has cast out many nations from your 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 you,

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 your God YHWH has given them before you, then you have struck them—you utterly devote them—you do not make a covenant with them, nor do you favor 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.

And you do not join in marriage with them; you do not give your daughter to his son, and you do not take his daughter to your 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 turns aside your son from after Me, and they have served other gods; and the anger of YHWH has burned against you and has destroyed you 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 you do to them: you break down their altars, and you shatter their standing pillars, and you cut down their Asherim, and you burn their carved 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 you [are] a holy people to your God YHWH; your God YHWH has fixed on you, to be to Him for a peculiar people, out of all the peoples who [are] on the face of the ground.

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.

YHWH has delighted in you and fixes on you, not because of your being more numerous than any of the peoples, for you [are] the least of all the 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 of YHWH’s loving you, and because of His keeping the oath which He has sworn to your fathers; YHWH has brought you out by a strong hand, and ransoms you from a house of servants, 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.

And you have known that He, your God YHWH, [is] God, the faithful God keeping the covenant and the kindness with those loving Him and with those keeping His commands, for one 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 repaying to those hating Him to their face, to destroy them; He does not delay to him who is hating Him, He repays [it] to 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.

And you have kept the command, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I am commanding you today 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 has been, because you hear these judgments, and have kept and done them, that your God YHWH has kept the covenant and the kindness with you which He has sworn to your 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 has loved you, and blessed you, and multiplied you, and has blessed the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, the increase of your oxen, and the wealth of your flock, on the ground which He has sworn to your fathers to give to you.

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.

Blessed are you above all the peoples; there is not a barren man or a barren woman in you—nor among your livestock;

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 YHWH has turned aside every sickness from you, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which you have known) does He put on you, and He has put them on all hating you.

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 you have consumed all the peoples whom your God YHWH is giving to you; your eye has no pity on them, and you do not serve their gods, for it [is] a snare to you.

17 “Do not think to yourselves, ‘These people-groups are more numerous/powerful than we are, so we certainly cannot [RHQ] expel them.’

When you say in your heart, These nations [are] more numerous than I, how am I able to 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].

You are not afraid of them; you surely remember that which your God YHWH has done to Pharaoh and to all of 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 your eyes have seen, and the signs, and the wonders, and the strong hand, and the outstretched arm, with which your God YHWH has brought you out; so does your God YHWH do to all the peoples of whose presence you 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.

And your God YHWH also sends the locust among them, until the destruction of those who are left, even those who are hidden from your presence;

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.

you are not terrified by their presence, for your God YHWH [is] in your midst, a God great and fearful.

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 your God YHWH has cast out these nations from your presence little [by] little (you are not able to consume them quickly, lest the beast of the field multiplies against you),

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.

and your God YHWH has given them before you, and confused them [with] a great destruction until their being 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 has given their kings into your hand, and you have destroyed their name from under the heavens; no man stations himself in your presence until you 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].

You burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you do not desire the silver and gold on them, nor have you taken [it] for yourself, lest you are snared by it, for it [is] an abomination [to] your God YHWH;

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 you do not bring in an abomination to your house, or you have been devoted like it—you utterly detest it and you utterly abhor it; for it [is] devoted.”