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 Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, he will drive out many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—seven nations greater and mightier 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.
It is Yahweh your God who gives them over to you when you defeat them, and then you must completely destroy them. You will make no covenant with them, and show them no mercy.
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 will you arrange any marriages with them. You will not give your daughters to their sons, and you will not take their daughters for your sons.
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 they will turn away your sons from following me, so that they may worship other gods. So the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and he will destroy 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.
This is how you will deal with them: You will break down their altars, dash their stone pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their cast idols.
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 nation that is set apart to Yahweh your God. He has chosen you to be a people for him to possess, more than all the other peoples that are on 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.
Yahweh did not set his love upon you or choose you because you were more in number than any people—for you 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 he loves you, and he wished to keep the oath that he had sworn to your fathers. This is why Yahweh 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.
Therefore know that Yahweh your God—he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenants and faithfulness for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments,
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.
but repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them; he will not be lenient on whoever 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.
You will therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the decrees that I command you today, so that you will 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.
If you listen to these decrees, and keep and do them, it will happen that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the faithfulness that he swore 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.
He will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the multiplication of your cattle and the young of your flocks, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give 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.
You will be blessed more than all other peoples; there will not be a childless male or a barren female 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.
Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; none of the evil diseases of Egypt that you have known will he put on you, but he will put them on all those who hate 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].
You will consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you, and your eye will not pity them. You will not worship their gods, for that will be a trap for you.
17 “Do not think to yourselves, ‘These people-groups are more numerous/powerful than we are, so we certainly cannot [RHQ] expel them.’
If you say in your heart, 'These nations are more numerous 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].
do not be afraid of them; you will call to mind what Yahweh your 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 sufferings that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. Yahweh your God will do the same to all the peoples whom you fear.
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, Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left and who hide themselves from you perish 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 will not be frightened at them, for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and fearsome God.
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].
Yahweh your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You will not defeat them all at once, or the wild animals would become very many around 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.
But Yahweh your God will give you victory over them when you meet them in battle; he will greatly confuse them until they are 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.
He will put their kings under your power, and you will make their name perish from under heaven. No one will be able to stand before you, 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 will burn the carved figures of their gods—do not covet the silver or the gold that covers them and take it for yourself, because if you do, you will become trapped by it—for it is an abomination to Yahweh your 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.”
You will not bring any abomination into your house and start to worship it. You will utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.
