Deuteronomy 7
26 verses
The cherem of the seven Canaanite nations—complete separation through no covenant and no intermarriage—reflects Deuteronomy's rigorous understanding of Israel's election as incompatible with compromise. The theological justification that God acts not because Israel is most numerous but because of his love and oath-keeping reframes election as divine grace rather than Israelite merit, a principle foundational to Paul's argument in Romans on predestination. The promise that God will clear the nations away little by little acknowledges the gradual character of conquest while emphasizing relentless divine action, and the prohibition against coveting their silver and gold—declaring such acquisitions an abomination—protects against idolatry's material and spiritual dimensions. This chapter encodes in law the principle of covenantal holiness: belonging to the LORD requires separation from idolatrous practices and peoples, a boundary that will mark Jewish identity through all subsequent history.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
0 0Open verse page →
2
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
0 0Open verse page →
3
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
0 0Open verse page →
4
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
0 0Open verse page →
5
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
0 0Open verse page →
6
For thou art an 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.
0 0Open verse page →
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:
0 0Open verse page →
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.
0 0Open verse page →
9
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
0 0Open verse page →
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.
0 0Open verse page →
11
Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.
0 1Open verse page →
12
Wherefore 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 sware unto thy fathers:
0 0Open verse page →
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 kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
0 0Open verse page →
14
Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
0 1Open verse page →
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 them that hate thee.
0 0Open verse page →
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.
0 0Open verse page →
17
If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
0 0Open verse page →
18
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
0 1Open verse page →
19
The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
0 0Open verse page →
20
Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
0 0Open verse page →
21
Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
0 0Open verse page →
22
And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
0 0Open verse page →
23
But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
0 0Open verse page →
24
And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
0 1Open verse page →
25
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
0 1Open verse page →
26
Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
0 0Open verse page →
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
No notes on this chapter yet. Be the first to write one!