Deuteronomy 7:6-16

6 "For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God; the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

7 The LORD did not set His love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people;

8 but because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations,

10 and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him that hateth Him; He will repay him to his face.

11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command thee this day, to do them.

12 "Therefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments and keep and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant 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 corn and thy wine and thine oil, the increase of thy cattle 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 people. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle.

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 who hate thee.

16 And thou shalt consume all the people 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.

Deuteronomy 7:6-16 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.