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 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 Perrizites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 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 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 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 shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give to his son, nor his daughter shalt 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 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.

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 destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, 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 [art] a holy people to the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people to himself, above all people 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.

The 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:

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 the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bond-men, 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 the LORD thy God, he [is] God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that 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 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.

11 “So you must be sure to obey all the commandments and rules and regulations that I am giving to you today.

Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, 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.

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God will keep to thee the covenant and the mercy 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 thy children, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, 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 shalt be blessed above all people: 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 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.

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 shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver to thee; thy eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt 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 shalt 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 shalt not be afraid of them: [but] shalt well remember what the LORD 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 temptations which thy eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the out-stretched arm, by which the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do to all the people of whom thou art 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, the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, shall be destroyed.

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

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 the LORD thy God will drive 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.

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 the LORD thy God shall deliver them to thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, 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.

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

The 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] to thee, lest thou shouldst be snared in it: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD 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.”

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