Deuteronomy 7:12-22

12 And it shall come to pass, for having heard these rights and for having kept them by doing them that the LORD thy God shall keep the covenant with thee and the mercy which he swore unto thy fathers;

13 and he will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee; he will also bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land, thy grain and thy wine and thine oil, the increase of thy cows and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he swore unto thy fathers to give thee.

14 Thou shalt be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you or among your beasts.

15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all those that hate thee.

16 And thou shalt consume all the peoples which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them; neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

17 When thou shalt say in thy heart, These Gentiles are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18 Do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD thy God did with Pharaoh and with all Egypt;

19 of the great trials which thine eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD thy God brought thee out; so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the peoples of whose presence thou art afraid.

20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them until those that are left and hide themselves from thee are destroyed.

21 Thou shalt not faint before them; for the LORD thy God is among you, a great and terrible God.

22 And the LORD thy God will put out those Gentiles before thee little by little; thou may not consume them at once lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

Deuteronomy 7:12-22 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.