DeuteronomyChapter 7
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1The LORD your God will bring you into the land you are going to take over. He will drive out many nations ahead of you. They are the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are larger and stronger than you. 2The LORD your God will hand them over to you, and you will defeat them. Then you must destroy them completely, as an offering to the LORD. Do not make any peace treaty with them. Show them no mercy.a 3Do not marry any of them. Do not give your daughters to their sons. Do not take their daughters for your sons. 4That is because they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. Then the LORD will be very angry with you. He will quickly destroy you. 5Here is what you must do to them. Tear down their altars. Smash their sacred stone pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles. Burn their idols in the fire. 6For you are a people set apart as holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the earth. You are his people, his special treasure. 7The LORD did not love you and choose you because there were more of you than other peoples. In fact, you were the fewest of all peoples. 8But the LORD loved you, and he kept the oath he swore to your fathers. So he brought you out with a mighty hand. He set you free from the place where you were slaves. He rescued you from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9So know that the LORD your God is God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his covenant of faithful love for a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. 10But he pays back those who hate him. He destroys them to their faces. He will not wait to pay back to his face anyone who hates him. 11So keep the commands, laws, and rules I am giving you today. Follow them. 12If you listen to these rules and are careful to keep them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant with you. He will show you the faithful love he promised your fathers with an oath. 13He will love you and bless you. He will make you grow in number. He will bless you with children. He will bless the crops of your land, your grain, new wine, and olive oil. He will bless the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. He will do this in the land he promised your fathers with an oath to give you. 14You will be blessed more than any other people. None of your men or women will be unable to have children. None of your animals will be without young. 15The LORD will take all sickness away from you. He will not put on you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt. But he will put them on all who hate you. 16You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God hands over to you. Do not feel sorry for them. Do not worship their gods, because that would be a trap for you. 17You may think to yourself, "These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?" 18But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19Remember the great troubles you saw. Remember the signs and wonders. Remember the mighty 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 now. 20The LORD your God will also send the hornet against them. Even those who are left and hide from you will die.b 21Do not be terrified of them. The LORD your God is among you. He is a great and awesome God. 22The LORD your God will drive out these nations ahead of you little by little. You will not be allowed to get rid of them all at once. If you did, the wild animals would grow too many around you. 23But the LORD your God will hand them over to you. He will throw them into great panic until they are destroyed. 24He will hand their kings over to you. You will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you. You will destroy them all. 25You must burn up the statues of their gods. Do not want the silver and gold on them. Do not take it for yourselves, or it will trap you. For the LORD your God hates it. 26Do not bring anything hateful to God into your house. If you do, you will be set apart to be destroyed, just like it. Hate it completely and turn away from it in disgust, because it is set apart to be destroyed.