7:1 When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites,¹ Girgashites,² Amorites,³ Canaanites,⁴ Perizzites,⁵ Hivites,⁶ and Jebusites,⁷ seven⁸ nations more populous and powerful than you—7:2 and he⁹ delivers them over to you and you attack them, utterly annihilate them; make no covenant with them nor show them compassion. 7:3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters¹⁰ to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons, 7:4 For they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the wrath of the LORD will erupt against you and he will soon destroy you. 7:5 To the contrary, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their masseboth,¹¹ cut down their asherim,¹² and burn up their images. 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. He¹³ has chosen you to be a people prized¹⁴ above all others on the face of the earth.

7:7 It is not because you were more populous than all the other peoples that the LORD considered and chose you—for in fact you were the smallest of all peoples—7:8 but because of his¹⁵ love¹⁶ for you and his faithfulness to the oath¹⁷ he swore to your ancestors the LORD brought you out with great power, redeeming¹⁸ you from the place of slaves, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 7:9 Therefore, take note that it is the LORD your God who is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully¹⁹ with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 7:10 but who pays back those who hate²⁰ him as they deserve²¹ and destroys them. He will not ignore²² those who hate him but will repay them as they deserve. 7:11 Thus, keep the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that I am commanding you today to do.

7:12 Then it will be that because you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the gracious covenant²³ he swore to your ancestors. 7:13 And he will love, bless, and increase you; he will bless your offspring, the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of our oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he swore to your ancestors to give you. 7:14 Blessed will you be beyond all people; there will be no barrenness²⁴ among you or your livestock. 7:15 The LORD will protect you from²⁵ all sickness, and you will not experience²⁶ any of the terrible diseases that you knew in Egypt; rather he will inflict them upon all who hate you.

7:16 You will overwhelm²⁷ all the people whom the LORD your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them nor worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 7:17 If you think,²⁸ these nations are more populous than I—how can I dispossess them?, 7:18 you must not fear them. You must carefully recall what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt, 7:19 the great afflictions you saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and extended arm by which he²⁹ brought you out—thus the LORD your God will do to all the people you fear. 7:20 Furthermore, he³⁰ will release the hornet³¹ among them until the very last ones who hide from you³² perish. 7:21 You must not tremble in their presence for the LORD your God who is in your midst is a great and awesome God. 7:22 He,³³ the God who leads you,³⁴ will expel the nations little by little. You must not overcome³⁵ them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you. 7:23 The LORD your God will give them over to you; he will trouble them with great difficulty until they are destroyed. 7:24 He will hand over their kings to you and you will erase their very names from memory.³⁶ Nobody will be able to stand before you until you annihilate them. 7:25 You must burn the images of their gods, but not so covet the silver and gold that covers them that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent³⁷ to the LORD your God. 7:26 You must not bring any detestable thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine annihilation³⁸ like it. You must absolutely abhor³⁹ and detest it for it is an object of divine annihilation.