Deuteronomy7
New King James Version
1“When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many 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 mightier than you,
2and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
3Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.
4For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.
5But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.
6“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
8but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.
11Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.
12“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.
13And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.
14You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
15And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
16Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17“If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’—
18you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed.
21You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you.
22And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
23But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.
24And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
25You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.
26Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.
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.