Deuteronomy 7:1-6

1 When thy Lord God hath led thee into the land, into which thou shalt enter to wield, and hath done away many folks before thee, (the) Hittites, and Girgashites, and Amorites, Canaanites, and Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites; seven folks, of much greater number than thou art, and stronger than thou;
2 and when thy Lord God hath betaken them to thee, thou shalt smite them unto death, thou shalt not make with them a bond of peace, neither thou shalt have mercy upon them, (and when the Lord thy God hath delivered them unto thee, thou shalt strike them down unto the death, thou shalt not make a covenant, or a peace treaty, with them, nor shalt thou have mercy on them,)
3 neither thou shalt fellowship marriages with them; thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, neither thou shalt take his daughter to thy son (nor shalt thou take his daughter for thy son);
4 for she shall deceive thy son, that he follow not me, that he serve more alien gods; and then the fierce vengeance of the Lord shall be wroth, and shall do away thee soon. (for she shall deceive thy son, so that he shall not follow me, and moreover, so that he serve foreign, or other, gods; and then the Lord shall be angry, and with fierce vengeance he shall swiftly do thee away.)
5 But rather thou shalt do these things to them; destroy ye their altars, and break ye their molten images of metal, and cut ye down their woods, and burn ye their graven images. (But rather thou shalt do these things to them; destroy ye their altars, and break ye up their metal idols, and cut ye down their sacred groves, or poles, and burn ye up their carved idols.)
6 For thou art an holy people to thy Lord God; thy Lord God chose thee, that thou be a special people to him, of all peoples that be on earth. (For thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God chose thee to be his special people, out of all the peoples that be on the earth.)

Deuteronomy 7:1-6 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.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.