Deuteronomy 7:2

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].

Deuteronomy 7:2 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:2

And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee
Into their hands:

thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them;
men, women, and children; which was ordered not merely to make way and room for the people of Israel to inherit their land, but as a punishment for capital crimes they had been guilty of, such as idolatry, incest, murder wherefore though they were reprieved for a while for Israel's sake, till their time was come to possess the land, they were at length righteously punished; which observed, abates the seeming severity exercised upon them:

thou shalt make no covenant with them;
to dwell in their cities and houses, and enjoy their lands and estates, on any condition whatever; and though they did make a league with the Gibeonites, that was obtained by fraud, they pretending not to be of the land of Canaan, but to come from a very distant country:

nor show mercy unto them;
by sparing their lives, bestowing any favours upon them, or giving them any help and assistance when in distress: the Jews extend this to all other Heathen nations besides these seven; wherefore, if an Israelite, as Maimonides ^F26 says, should see a Gentile perishing, or plunged into a river, he may not take him out, nor administer medicine to a sick person. Hence Juvenal ^F1 the poet upbraids them with their unkindness and incivility; and says that Moses delivered it as a Jewish law, in a secret volume of his, perhaps referring to this book of Deuteronomy, that the Jews might not direct a poor traveller in his way unless he was one of their religion, nor one athirst to a fountain of water; and which led Tacitus ^F2, the Heathen historian, to make this remark upon them, that they entertained an hostile hatred against all other people.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Hilchot Abodath Cochabim, c. 10. sect. 1, 2.
F1 "Non monstrare vias" Satyr 14.
F2 Hist l. 5. c. 5.

Deuteronomy 7:2 In-Context

1 "When Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you [are] about to enter {into it} to take possession of it, and he drives out many nations {before you}, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you,

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.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "to your faces" or "before you"
• [b] Literally "set them aside for destruction"