Deuteronomy - Chapter 7

¹ 'When Yahweh your God has brought you into the country which you are going to make your own, many nations will fall before you: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than yourselves.

² Yahweh your God will put them at your mercy and you will conquer them. You must put them under the curse of destruction. You must not make any treaty with them or show them any pity.

³ You must not intermarry with them; you must not give a daughter of yours to a son of theirs, or take a daughter of theirs for a son of yours,

⁴ for your son would be seduced from following me into serving other gods; the wrath of Yahweh would blaze out against you and he would instantly destroy you.

⁵ Instead, treat them like this: tear down their altars, smash their standing-stones, cut down their sacred poles and burn their idols.

⁶ For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; of all the peoples on earth, you have been chosen by Yahweh your God to be his own people.

⁷ 'Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples -- for indeed you were the smallest of all-

⁸ but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ From this you can see that Yahweh your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true to his covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep his commandments,

¹⁰ punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay; and it is in their own persons that he punishes them.

¹¹ Hence, you must keep and observe the commandments, laws and customs which I am laying down for you today.

¹² 'Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return Yahweh your God will be true to the covenant and love which he promised on oath to your ancestors.

¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he will bless the fruit of your body and the produce of your soil, your corn, your new wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in the country which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.

¹⁴ You will be the most blessed of all peoples. None of you, man or woman, will be sterile, no male or female of your beasts infertile.

¹⁵ Yahweh will deflect all illness from you; he will not afflict you with those evil plagues of Egypt which you have known, but will inflict them on all who hate you.

¹⁶ 'So, devour all the peoples whom Yahweh your God puts at your mercy, show them no pity, do not serve their gods: or you will be ensnared.

¹⁷ 'You may say in your heart, "These nations outnumber me; how shall I be able to dispossess them?"

¹⁸ Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yahweh your God treated Pharaoh and all Egypt,

¹⁹ the great ordeals that you yourselves have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which Yahweh your God brought you out. This is how Yahweh your God will treat all the peoples whom you fear to face.

²⁰ And what is more, Yahweh your God will send hornets to destroy those who are left and who hide from you.

²¹ 'Do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and terrible God.

²² Little by little, Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you; you cannot destroy them all at once, or wild animals will breed and be disastrous for you.

²³ But Yahweh your God will put them at your mercy, and disaster after disaster will overtake them until they are finally destroyed.

²⁴ He will put their kings at your mercy and you will blot out their names under heaven; no one will be able to resist you -- until you have destroyed them all.

²⁵ 'You must burn the statues of their gods, not coveting the gold and silver that covers them; take it and you will be caught in a snare: it is detestable to Yahweh your God.

²⁶ You must not bring any detestable thing into your house: or you, like it, will come under the curse of destruction. You must regard them as unclean and loathsome, for they are under the curse of destruction.'

Book of Deuteronomy Chapters

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