Deuteronomy 7

¹ ‘When Yahweh your God has led you into the land you are entering to make your own, many nations will fall before you: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,[*a] seven nations greater and stronger than yourselves.

² Yahweh your God will deliver them over to you and you will conquer them. You must lay them under ban. You must make no covenant with them nor show them any pity.

³ You must not marry with them: you must not give a daughter of yours to a son of theirs, nor take a daughter of theirs for a son of yours,

⁴ for this would turn away your son from following me to serving other gods and the anger of Yahweh would blaze out against you and soon destroy you.

⁵ Instead, deal with them like this: tear down their altars, smash their standing-stones, cut down their sacred poles and set fire to their idols.

⁶ For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; it is you that Yahweh our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth.

⁷ ‘If Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you out-numbered other peoples: you were the least of all peoples.

⁸ It was for love of you and to keep the oath he swore to your fathers that Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ Know then that Yahweh your God is God indeed, the faithful God who is true to his covenant and his graciousness for a thousand generations towards those who love him and keep his commandments,

¹⁰ but who punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He is not slow to destroy the man who hates him; he makes him work out his punishment in person.

¹¹ You are therefore to keep and observe the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I lay down for you today.

¹² ‘Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return Yahweh your God will be true to the covenant and the kindness he promised your fathers solemnly.

¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he will bless the fruit of your body and the produce of your soil, your corn, your wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in the land he swore to your fathers he would give you.

¹⁴ You will be more blessed than all peoples. No man or woman among you shall be barren, no male or female of your beasts infertile.

¹⁵ Yahweh will keep all sickness far from you; he will not afflict you with those evil plagues of Egypt which you have known, but will save them for all those who hate you.

¹⁶ ‘Devour, then, all these peoples whom Yahweh your God delivers over to you, show them no pity, do not serve their gods, for otherwise you would be ensnared.

¹⁷ ‘You may say in your heart, “These nations outnumber me; how shall I be able to dispossess them?”

¹⁸ Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yahweh your God dealt with Pharaoh and all Egypt,

¹⁹ the great ordeals your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which Yahweh your God has brought you out. So will Yahweh your God deal with all the peoples whom you fear to face.

²⁰ And what is more, Yahweh your God will send hornets to destroy those who remain and hide from you.

²¹ ‘Do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is among you, a God who is great and terrible.

²² Little by little Yahweh your God will destroy these nations before you; you will not be able to make an end of them at once, or the wild beasts would grow too many for you.

²³ But Yahweh your God will deliver them over to you and will harass them until they are destroyed.

²⁴ He will deliver their kings into your hands and you will blot out their names from under heaven; none shall withstand you, until you have destroyed them all.

²⁵ ‘You must set fire to all the carved images of their gods, not coveting the gold and silver that covers them; take it and you will be caught in a snare: it is detestable to Yahweh your God.

²⁶ You must not bring any detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will come under the ban too. You must regard them as unclean and loathsome, for they are under the ban.