Deuteronomy 7

The LORD your God is bringing you into the land you are going in to take as your own. He will drive out ahead of you many nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you.

1When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

NoteThese seven names are the peoples living in Canaan before Israel settled there, listed here as a set formula rather than a survey. "Canaanite" is the broadest of them and is sometimes used for all the inhabitants of the land; the Hittites shared a name with the empire in what is now Turkey, though the group named here seems to have been a local one; the Jebusites are elsewhere connected with Jerusalem before David took it. Several of the other names are known almost only from lists like this one.

2And when the LORD your God hands them over to you and you defeat them, you must set them apart for complete destruction. Do not make any treaty with them, and do not show them mercy.

2And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Note"Set apart for complete destruction" translates a single Hebrew word (herem). It means placing something permanently outside ordinary human use by handing it over to God, for a city or an army, by destroying it rather than taking it as plunder or absorbing it. The KJV's "utterly destroy" carries only the destruction, not the idea of things being surrendered to God. A "covenant" or "treaty" here is a formal, binding agreement between peoples, sworn with oaths and usually setting out obligations on both sides.

3Do not marry into their families. Do not give your daughter to one of their sons, and do not take one of their daughters for your son.

3Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

NoteIn this world, marriage between families was a political act as much as a personal one: giving and taking daughters was one of the standard ways two groups sealed a lasting alliance. The ban on intermarriage is therefore closely tied to the ban on treaties in the previous verse.

4They would turn your son away from following me, so that he would serve other gods. Then the LORD would burn with anger against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

4For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

5Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred stone pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved idols in the fire.

5But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

NoteFour items of ordinary Canaanite worship. An altar is a raised structure, usually of stone, on which animals and other offerings were burned. The "sacred stone pillars" (KJV "images") are upright standing stones set up to mark a holy place or represent a god. An "Asherah pole" is a wooden pole or living tree standing for the goddess Asherah. The "carved images" (KJV "graven images") are figures cut from wood or stone, often plated with precious metal, see verse 25.

6You are a people set apart for the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own treasured people.

6For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Note"Holy" in the Hebrew does not mean morally pure; it means set apart, reserved for one particular use. "Treasured people" (KJV "special people") translates a word used of a king's own private hoard, as distinct from the property of the kingdom, a personal possession kept back for himself.

7The LORD did not set his love on you and choose you because there were more of you than of any other people. In fact, you were the smallest of all peoples.

7The LORD 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 people:

8He did it because he loved you, and because he was keeping the promise he swore to your ancestors. So the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and bought you back from the land of slavery, out of the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

8But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Note"With a mighty hand" is a stock phrase for overwhelming force, borrowed from the way Egyptian kings described their own power. "Redeemed" (here "bought back") is the vocabulary of the marketplace and the family: paying a price to get a relative, a slave, or a piece of land back out of someone else's hands. The KJV's "house of bondmen" is literally "house of slaves."

9So know this: the LORD your God is God. He is the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and his steady love for a thousand generations with those who love him and obey his commands.

9Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

NoteA covenant is a binding agreement sworn with an oath, spelling out what each side owes the other; it is the basic term for the arrangement between God and Israel. "Steady love" (KJV "mercy") translates hesed, a word for loyal, committed kindness shown by someone inside an ongoing relationship, closer to "faithfulness" or "unfailing loyalty" than to pity. "A thousand generations" is a way of saying "beyond counting," not a fixed sum; it is deliberately set against the "third and fourth generation" of punishment named in the Ten Commandments.

10But he pays back to their face those who hate him, and destroys them. He will not put it off; he will pay back the one who hates him, to his face.

10And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

Note"To his face" is an idiom meaning directly and in person, with no intermediary and no delay, the point picked up by "he will not put it off."

11So keep the commands, the rules, and the decisions I am giving you today, and do what they say.

11Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Note"Commands, rules, and decisions" (KJV "commandments, statutes, judgments") are three overlapping Hebrew terms for kinds of law: direct orders, fixed standing regulations, and rulings of the sort a judge hands down. Used together like this they mean the whole body of law rather than three separate categories.

12Here is what will happen. If you listen to these rules, and keep them, and do them, then the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steady love he swore to your ancestors.

12Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:

13He will love you, bless you, and make you many. He will bless your children, the crops of your land, your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil, and the young of your cattle and your flocks of sheep, in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

13And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

NoteGrain, new wine, and olive oil are the three staple products of the land, and naming them together is a standard shorthand for agricultural prosperity. "New wine" is the fresh juice of the recent harvest. "The fruit of your womb" (here "your children") is the same word applied to people that is applied to crops, holding human and agricultural fertility in one phrase.

14You will be blessed more than any other people. No man or woman among you will be unable to have children, and none of your livestock will be unable to breed.

14Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

15The LORD will take away every sickness from you. He will not put on you any of the terrible diseases you saw in Egypt, but he will put them on everyone who hates you.

15And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

Note"The terrible diseases you saw in Egypt" points back to what the audience is assumed to remember from their time there, possibly the plagues of the exodus, possibly illnesses Egypt was simply known for. The text does not specify.

16You must destroy every people the LORD your God hands over to you. Do not look at them with pity. And do not serve their gods, because that would be a trap for you.

16And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

NoteA "snare" or "trap" is a bird-catcher's device: something that looks harmless, is stepped into unawares, and then holds fast. The image is of being caught before you notice.

17You may say to yourself, "These nations are bigger than we are. How can we drive them out?"

17If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18Do not be afraid of them. Remember carefully what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt:

18Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

19the great trials you saw with your own eyes, the signs and wonders, and the strong hand and outstretched arm the LORD your God used to bring you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you are afraid of.

19The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

NoteThe KJV's "temptations" does not mean enticements to sin; the older sense is trials or testings, the ordeals Egypt was put through. "Signs and wonders" are events meant to be read as evidence of who is acting. "Outstretched arm," like "mighty hand," is borrowed Egyptian royal language for a king's power in war.

20What is more, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them, until even those who are left, the ones who hide from you, have died.

20Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "hornet" is rare and its meaning uncertain. It may mean literal hornets or wasps; some take it as a figure for panic or terror sent ahead of an army, and others connect it with Egyptian military campaigns through Canaan, since the bee was a royal symbol of Egypt. Translations keep "hornet" because the ambiguity cannot be resolved.

21Do not be terrified by them, because the LORD your God is among you. He is a great God, and one to be feared.

21Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

NoteThe KJV's "terrible" means inspiring terror or awe, not "very bad." The Hebrew word describes something whose presence makes people afraid; "awesome" in its older sense is the nearest modern equivalent.

22The LORD your God will push those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not be able to finish them off all at once, or the wild animals would grow too many around you.

22And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

NoteLand left empty of people reverts quickly to wilderness. The concern is practical: a countryside cleared all at once, faster than settlers can occupy it, becomes overrun by lions, bears, and boar, which then threaten the newcomers.

23But the LORD your God will hand them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

23But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

24He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe their names off the earth. No one will be able to stand against you; you will destroy them all.

24And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

NoteTo "wipe out a name" means more than erasing an inscription. A person's name carried on in descendants and in being remembered; destroying it means ending the line and the memory of it together, which for a king means the end of his dynasty.

25You must burn the carved images of their gods in the fire. Do not want the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourself, or you will be trapped by it. It is detestable to the LORD your God.

25The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

NoteWooden or stone idols were commonly overlaid with sheets of silver or gold, so burning the image would leave the precious metal behind, intact and valuable. That salvaged metal is what is forbidden here. "Detestable" (KJV "abomination") translates a word for something a community treats as unfit and repellent, a matter of what is excluded rather than of taste.

26And do not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You must utterly detest it and utterly hate it, because it is set apart for destruction.

26Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

Note"Set apart for destruction" (KJV "a cursed thing") is the same word used in verse 2: something handed over to God and so barred from ordinary use. The warning is that the status is catching, bringing such an object home puts the household under it too.