Old Testament Commentary - Deuteronomy 7

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
             CHAPTER 7            

Israel to destroy seven nations of Canaan—Marriages with them are forbidden lest apostasy results—Israel has a mission as a holy and chosen people—The Lord shows mercy unto those who love him and keep his commandments—He promises to remove sickness from Israel if they hearken.

  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 anations greater and mightier than thou;
  2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly adestroy them; thou shalt bmake no ccovenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
  3 Neither shalt thou make amarriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
  4 For they will aturn away thy son from following me, that they may bserve other gods: so will the canger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
  5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall adestroy their altars, and break down their bimages, and cut down their cgroves, and burn their graven images with fire.
  6 For thou art aan bholy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath cchosen thee to be a dspecial 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 aloved you, and because he would keep the boath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and credeemed 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, which akeepeth covenant and bmercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
  10 And arepayeth them that hate him to their face, to bdestroy them: he will not be slack to him that chateth him, he will repay him to his face.
  11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the ajudgments, which I bcommand thee this day, to do them.
  12 ¶ Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye ahearken to these bjudgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the ccovenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
  13 And he will alove thee, and bless thee, and bmultiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the cfruit of thy land, thy dcorn, 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.
  14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female abarren among you, or among your cattle.
  15 And the LORD will take away from thee all asickness, and will put none of the evil bdiseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that 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 agods; for that will be a snare unto thee.
  17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
  18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
  19 The great atemptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the bwonders, 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.
  20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
  21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and aterrible.
  22 And the LORD thy God will aput out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the bbeasts of the field increase upon thee.
  23 But the LORD thy God shall adeliver them unto thee, and shall bdestroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
  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.
  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.
  26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it:a but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
 26a Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: Isreal had been commanded and warned. They would not destroy all from the land as God had commanded. They would turn from the Lord and desire a king like unto the other nations. And their kings would bring in other nations in amongst them, and with them those other gods. And when Israel did turn unto those other gods to worship, Israel was cursed and the Lord did destroy them and scatter them and bring them into bondage; for they did not do as the Lord would have them do and they did bring those abominations into their own house.