Deuteronomy 7

1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land where 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;

The Lord your God is going to lead you into the land that you are taking over in order to own it, and will drive out ahead of you many other nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations that are larger and stronger than you.

2 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:

When the Lord your God has handed them over to you to defeat them, then you must set them apart for destruction. Don't make any peace treaty with them and don't show them any mercy.

3 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.

Don't intermarry with them. Don't let your daughters marry their sons or have their daughters marry your sons,

4 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.

because they will lead your children away from following me to worship other gods. Then the Lord will be angry with you, and he will quickly come and kill you.

5 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.

On the contrary, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, knock down their idolatrous pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn down their idols.

6 For thou art an 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.

For you are the Lord your God's holy people. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special people, valued above all other peoples on the earth.

7 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:

It wasn't because there were so many of you that the Lord loved you more than any other nation, in fact he chose you though there were so few of you.

8 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 bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

However, because the Lord loved you and kept the promise he gave to your forefathers, He led you out by his power and rescued you from the prison-house of slavery, from the rule of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

9 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;

That's why you can be sure that the Lord your God is the true God, the faithful God who keeps his agreement based on trustworthy love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

10 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.

But he doesn't hesitate to pay back those who hate him by destroying them.

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

So keep the commandments and rules and regulations that I'm giving you to follow today.

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

If you listen to these regulations and are careful to observe them, then the Lord your God will keep his agreement and the trustworthy love that he promised to your forefathers.

13 And 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 grain, and thy wine, and thy oil, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he swore to thy fathers to give thee.

He will love you and bless you and give you many descendants. He will bless your children and the crops your land produces—your grain, new wine, and olive oil, the calves of your cattle herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that he promised your forefathers to give you.

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

You will be blessed more than any other nation; none of you will be childless, and none of your livestock will fail to have young.

15 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.

The Lord will keep you from having any kind of sickness. He will not let you have any of the terrible diseases you saw in Egypt, but he will let all who hate you suffer from them.

16 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.

You are to destroy all the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Don't look on them with sympathy. Don't worship their gods, for that will end up being a trap to you.

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

You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than us. How on earth can we drive them out?”

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

But don't be afraid of them. Make sure you remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and the whole of Egypt:

19 The great temptations which thy eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched 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.

the amazing tests you witnessed, the signs and miracles, the great power and incredible strength the Lord your God used to lead you out. The Lord your God is going to deal with all the nations you're currently afraid of in the same way.

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

On top of this, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them until anyone who has survived and anyone hiding from you have been killed.

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

Don't be frightened of these nations, for the Lord your God, who is with you, is a powerful and awesome God.

22 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.

The Lord your God will drive out these nations ahead of you in stages. You won't be able to get rid of them all at the same time, or you'd be overwhelmed by wild animals.

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

But the Lord your God will hand them over to you and throw them into a terrible panic, until they are wiped out.

24 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.

He will give their defeated kings to you to be killed, and even their names will be forgotten. No one will be able to withstand you; you will completely destroy them.

25 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 shouldest be snared in it: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

You must burn the idols of their god. Don't desire the silver and gold that covers them. Don't take it or otherwise it will be a trap for you because the Lord your God detests anything to do with idols.

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

Don't bring any detestable idol into your house, otherwise you will treated just like it—by being set apart for destruction. You are to treat idols as totally despicable, and stay far away from them, because they are set apart for destruction.