Deuteronomy7
World English Bible · Public Domain
1When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you;
2and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
3You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
4For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
5But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;
8but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments,
10and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
11You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you today, to do them.
12It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers.
13He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
14You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock.
15Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
16You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you.
17If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”
18you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.
21You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God.
22Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.
23But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.
25You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
26You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted 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.