Deuteronomy7
New American Standard
1“When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to take possession of it, and He drives away many nations from before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
2and when the Lord your God turns them over to you and you defeat them, you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant with them nor be gracious to them.
3Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.
4For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.
5But this is what you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, smash their memorial stones, cut their Asherim to pieces, and burn their carved images in the fire.
6For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7“The Lord did not make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples,
8but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10but He repays those who hate Him to their faces, to eliminate them; He will not hesitate toward him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
11Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.
12“Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep His covenant with you and His faithfulness which He swore to your forefathers.
13And He will love you, bless you, and make you numerous; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the newborn of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.
14You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no sterile male or infertile female among you or among your cattle.
15And the Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not inflict upon you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you.
16You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will turn over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’
18you are not to be afraid of them; you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20Indeed, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.
21You are not to be terrified of them, because the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
22And the Lord your God will drive away these nations from you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.
23But the Lord your God will turn them over to you, and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
24And He will hand over their kings to you, so that you will eliminate their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
25The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.
26And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become designated for destruction, like it; you are to utterly detest it, and you are to utterly loathe it, for it is something designated for destruction.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Deuteronomy 7.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Intercourse with the Canaanites forbidden. (1–11). Promises if they were obedient. (12–26).
vv1-11
Here is a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God, must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. Limiting the orders to destroy, to the nations here mentioned, plainly shows that after ages were not to draw this into a precedent. A proper understanding of the evil of sin, and of the mystery of a crucified Saviour, will enable us to perceive the justice of God in all his punishments, temporal and eternal. We must deal decidedly with our lusts that war against our souls; let us not show them any mercy, but mortify, and crucify, and utterly destroy them. Thousands in the world that now is, have been undone by ungodly marriages; for there is more likelihood that the good will be perverted, than that the bad will be converted. Those who, in choosing yoke-fellows, keep not within the bounds of a profession of religion, cannot promise themselves helps meet for them.
vv12-26
We are in danger of having fellowship with the works of darkness if we take pleasure in fellowship with those who do such works. Whatever brings us into a snare, brings us under a curse. Let us be constant to our duty, and we cannot question the constancy of God's mercy. Diseases are God's servants; they go where he sends them, and do what he bids them. It is therefore good for the health of our bodies, thoroughly to mortify the sin of our souls; which is our rule of duty. Yet sin is never totally destroyed in this world; and it actually prevails in us much more than it would do, if we were watchful and diligent. In all this the Lord acts according to the counsel of his own will; but that counsel being hid from us, forms no excuse for our sloth and negligence, of which it is in no degree the cause. We must not think, that because the deliverance of the church, and the destruction of the enemies of the soul, are not done immediately, therefore they will never be done. God will do his own work in his own method and time; and we may be sure that they are always the best. Thus corruption is driven out of the hearts of believers by little and little. The work of sanctification is carried on gradually; but at length there will be a complete victory. Pride, security, and other sins that are common effects of prosperity, are enemies more dangerous than beasts of the field, and more apt to increase upon us.
Key Words
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
בּוֹא: to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)
אֶרֶץ: the earth (at large, or partitively a land)
יָרַשׁ: to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place); by implication, to seize, to rob, to inherit; also to expel, to impoverish, to ruin
נָשַׁל: to pluck off, i.e. divest, eject or drop
רַב: abundant (in quantity, size, age, number, rank, quality)
גּוֹי: a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts
פָּנִים: the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.)
חִתִּי: a Chittite, or descendant of Cheth
גִּרְגָּשִׁי: a Girgashite, one of the native tribes of Canaan
Cross References
Deuteronomy 7Poole and Calvin emphasize God's sovereign choice and delight in Israel's fathers, not based on numbers.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
The tragic historical realization of foreign marriages turning hearts away to other gods.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Calvin cites this to show the calling of the church to holiness and to show forth God's praises.
Supported by John Calvin, JFB
Matches the exact logic of driving out the Canaanites 'by little and little' to prevent wild beasts.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The holy seed mixing with the peoples of the lands, citing this forbidden practice directly.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The foundational covenant declaration of Israel as God's peculiar treasure (segullah) among all nations.
Supported by John Calvin
It pleased the Lord to make Israel His people purely for His own name's sake.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The original promise of the land to Abraham, listing the specific Canaanite nations.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Intra-chapter reinforcement emphasizing the burning of images and not desiring their silver or gold.
Parallel promise of blessing on bread, water, and the removal of sickness.
God promises to put none of the diseases of Egypt upon obedient Israel.
Direct historical fulfillment of God sending the hornet to drive out the kings of the Amorites.
The historical danger realized when Achan took the accursed thing, bringing trouble on Israel.
Cited by JFB to illustrate that evil communications corrupt good manners in Canaan.
Supported by JFB
New Testament parallel of Christ redeeming a 'peculiar people' zealous of good works.
Corresponds to the blessings of obedience on the fruit of the body and ground.