Deuteronomy 7:2-12

2 and Yahweh your God will give them {over to you} and you defeat them, you must {utterly destroy them}; you shall not make a covenant with them, and you shall not show mercy [to them].
3 And you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to their son; and you shall not take his daughter for your son.
4 For their sons and daughters will cause your son to turn away {from following me}, and [so] they will serve other gods, and {the anger of Yahweh would be kindled} against you, and he would quickly destroy you.
5 But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire.
6 For you [are] a holy people for Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be for him a people, a treasured possession from [among] all the peoples that [are] on the face of the earth.
7 "Yahweh loved you and chose you not {because of your great number} exceeding all [other] peoples, for you [are] fewer than all of the peoples,
8 but {because of} the love of Yahweh [for] you and because of his keeping [of] the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors, Yahweh brought you [out] with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
9 [So] know that Yahweh your God, he [is] God, the trustworthy God, maintaining his covenant and his loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
10 but repaying those who hate him {in their own person} to destroy them; he is not slow with those who hate him {in their own person}; he repays them.
11 And [so] you shall keep the commandment and the rules and the regulations that I [am] commanding you {today} to observe them.
12 "{And then} because you listen [to] these regulations and you diligently keep and you do them, then Yahweh your God will maintain his covenant and his loyal love that he swore to your ancestors.

Deuteronomy 7:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 7

In this chapter the Israelites are exhorted to destroy the seven nations of the land of Canaan, when they entered into it, and to make no alliances with them of any kind, nor suffer any remains of idolatry to continue, De 7:1-5 to observe which, and other commands of God, they are urged from the consideration of their being freely chosen of God above all other people, and of their being redeemed out of the house of bondage, and of the Lord's being a covenant keeping God to them, De 7:6-11 and it is promised them, for their further encouragement to keep the commands of God, that they should have an increase of all temporal good things, and no evils and calamities should come upon them, De 6:12-16, and, lest they should be disheartened at the numbers and might of their enemies, they are put in mind of what God had done for them in Egypt, and of what he had promised to do for them now, De 7:17-20 and they are assured that the nations should be cast out before them by little and little, until they were utterly destroyed, De 7:21-24 and the chapter is concluded with an exhortation to destroy their images, and not admit anything of that sort to be brought into their houses, De 7:25,26.

Footnotes 25

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.