Deuteronomy 7

1 When the Lord your God takes you into the land where you are going, which is to be your heritage, and has sent out the nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you;

And when the Lord your God shall bring you into the land, into which you go to possess it, and shall remove great nations from before you, the Chettite, and Gergesite, and Amorite, and Chananite, and Pherezite, and Evite, and Jebusite, seven nations [more] numerous and stronger than you,

2 And when the Lord has given them up into your hands and you have overcome them, give them up to complete destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no mercy on them:

and the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands, then you shall strike them: you shall utterly destroy them: you shall not make a covenant with them, neither shall you pity them:

3 Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons.

neither shall you contract marriages with them: you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter to your son.

4 For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.

For he will draw away your son from me, and he will serve other gods; and the Lord will be very angry with you, and will soon utterly destroy you.

5 But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees cut down and their images burned with fire.

But thus shall you do to them; you shall destroy their altars, and shall break down their pillars, and shall cut down their groves, and shall burn with fire the graven images of their gods.

6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord your God chose you to be to him a peculiar people beyond all nations that [are] upon the face of the earth.

7 The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations:

It was not because you are more numerous than all [other] nations that the Lord preferred you, and the Lord made choice of you: for you are fewer in number than all [other] nations.

8 But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

But because the Lord loved you, and as keeping the oath which he sware to your fathers, the Lord brought you out with a strong hand, and the Lord redeemed you from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharao king of Egypt.

9 Be certain, then, that the Lord your God is God; whose faith and mercy are unchanging, who keeps his word through a thousand generations to those who have love for him and keep his laws;

You shall know therefore, that the Lord your God, he [is] God, a faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him, and for those that keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

10 Rewarding his haters to their face with destruction; he will have no mercy on his hater, but will give him open punishment.

and who recompenses them that hate him to their face, to destroy them utterly; and will not be slack with them that hate him: he will recompense them to their face.

11 So keep the orders and the laws and the decisions which I give you today and do them.

You shall keep therefore the commands, and the ordinances, and these judgments, which I command you this day to do.

12 And it will be, that if you give attention to these decisions and keep and do them, then the Lord will keep his agreement with you and his mercy, as he said in his oath to your fathers.

And it shall come to pass when you shall have heard these ordinances, and shall have kept and done them, that the Lord your God shall keep for you the covenant and the mercy, which he sware to your fathers.

13 And he will give you his love, blessing you and increasing you: he will send his blessing on the offspring of your body and the fruit of your land, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which by his oath to your fathers he undertook to give you.

And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; and he will bless the off-spring of your body, and the fruit of your land, your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep, on the land which the Lord sware to your fathers to give to you.

14 You will have greater blessings than any other people: no male or female among you or among your cattle will be without offspring.

You shall be blessed beyond all nations; there shall not be among you an impotent or barren one, or among your cattle.

15 And the Lord will take away from you all disease, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have seen, but will put them on your haters.

And the Lord your God shall remove from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you have seen, and all that you have known, will he lay upon you; but he will lay them upon all that hate you.

16 And you are to send destruction on all the peoples which the Lord your God gives into your hands; have no pity on them, and do not give worship to their gods; for that will be a cause of sin to you.

And you shall eat all the spoils of the nations which the Lord your God gives you; your eye shall not spare them, and you shall not serve their gods; for this is an offense to you.

17 If you say in your hearts, These nations are greater in number than we are: how are we to take their land from them?

But if you should say in your heart, This nation [is] greater than I, how shall I be able to destroy them utterly?

18 Have no fear of them, but keep well in mind what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt;

you shall not fear them; you shall surely remember all that the Lord your God did to Pharao and to all the Egyptians:

19 The great punishments which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the stretched-out arm, by which the Lord your God took you out: so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples who are the cause of your fears.

the great temptations which your eyes have seen, those signs and great wonders, the strong hand, and the high arm; how the Lord your God brought you forth: so the Lord your God will do to all the nations, whom you fear in their presence.

20 And the Lord will send a hornet among them, till all the rest who have kept themselves safe from you in secret places have been cut off.

And the Lord your God shall send against them the hornets, until they that are left and they that are hidden from you be utterly destroyed.

21 Have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, a great God greatly to be feared.

You shall not be wounded before them, because the Lord your God in the midst of you [is] a great and powerful God.

22 The Lord your God will send out the nations before you little by little; they are not to be rooted out quickly, for fear that the beasts of the field may be increased overmuch against you.

And the Lord your God shall consume these nations before you by little and little: you shall not be able to consume them speedily, lest the land become desert, and the wild beasts of the field be multiplied against you.

23 But the Lord your God will give them up into your hands, overpowering them till their destruction is complete.

And the Lord your God shall deliver them into your hands, and you shall destroy them with a great destruction, until you shall have utterly destroyed them.

24 He will give their kings into your hands, and you will put their names out of existence under heaven; there is not one of them who will not give way before you, till their destruction is complete.

And he shall deliver their kings into your hands, and you shall destroy their name from that place; none shall stand up in opposition before you, until you shall have utterly destroyed them.

25 The images of their gods are to be burned with fire: have no desire for the gold and silver on them, and do not take it for yourselves, for it will be a danger to you: it is a thing disgusting to the Lord your God:

You shall burn with fire the graven images of their gods: you shall not covet [their] silver, neither shall you take to yourself gold from them, lest you should offend thereby, because it is an abomination to the Lord your God.

26 And you may not take a disgusting thing into your house, and so become cursed with its curse: but keep yourselves from it, turning from it with fear and hate, for it is a cursed thing.

And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, so should you be an accursed thing like it; you shall utterly hate it, and altogether abominate it, because it is an accursed thing.