Devote the Nations to Destruction

1“When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and He clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and stronger than you, 2and when Yahweh your God gives them over before you and you strike them down, then you shall devote them to destruction. You shall cut no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your [†]daughters to [†]their sons, nor shall you take [†]their daughters for your [†]sons. 4For [†]they will turn your [†]sons away from [†]following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. 5But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut their [†]Asherim in pieces and burn their graven images with fire. 6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His [†]own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the [†]earth.

7“Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8but because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of [†]slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9You shall know therefore that Yahweh your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps [†]His covenant and [†]His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10but repays those who hate Him to [†]their faces, to make [†]them perish; He will not delay [†]with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. 11Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Yahweh’s Covenant Blessings

12“Then it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you [†]His covenant and [†]His lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers. 13And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, [†]in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle. 15And Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you. 16And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

17“If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ 18you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20Moreover, Yahweh your God will send the hornet against them until those who remain and hide themselves from you perish. 21You shall not dread [†]them, for Yahweh your God is in your midst, a great and fearsome God. 22And Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, lest the [†]wild beasts become too numerous for you. 23But Yahweh your God will give them over before you and will [†]throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. 24And He will give their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. 25The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 26And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become devoted to destruction like it; you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.