Deuteronomy 7

KJV · Chapter 7/34

1When 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;

2And 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:

3Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

4For 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.

5But 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.

6For 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.

7The 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:

8But 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.

9Know 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;

10And 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.

11Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

12Wherefore 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:

13And 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.

14Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

15And 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.

16And 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.

17If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

19The 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.

20Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

21Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

22And 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.

23But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

24And 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.

25The 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.

26Neither 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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God commands the complete destruction of Canaanite idolatry and forbids intermarriage with those peoples, explaining that Israel was chosen not for being great or deserving, but simply because of God's freely given love and his faithfulness to the oath made to the patriarchs.

Explanation

The severe command to totally destroy Canaanite altars and idols was meant to protect Israel from being gradually drawn into corrupt religious practices, including child sacrifice, which archaeology confirms were practiced by neighboring peoples such as the Canaanites and Phoenicians. The explanation that God chose Israel 'not because ye were more in number than any people... but because the Lord loved you' is one of the most important statements in the Bible about grace: divine election is not based on human merit, but on God's loving and faithful initiative. This principle of undeserved grace, established here so early in the Old Testament, anticipates central themes the New Testament will fully develop concerning salvation by grace, not by works.

Fun facts

  • The statement that Israel was 'the fewest of all people' (v. 7) when chosen is confirmed by Egyptian records of the period, which generally did not mention the Hebrews as a significant political power before the Exodus — a small group chosen by grace, not by power.
  • God's promise of faithfulness 'to a thousand generations' toward those who love him and keep his commandments (v. 9) is an almost identical quotation of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:6), showing the consistency in how God's loyal love is characterized throughout the Torah.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Deuteronomy 7:1The command to utterly destroy seven peoples of Canaan, with no treaty and no mercy, uses the holy-war language of the ancient world, in which wiping out the enemy was seen as part of fulfilling the promise of the land. It is a text historians and theologians read in quite different ways, with no agreement on how far it was actually carried out.
  2. Deuteronomy 7:2It spells out what to “cast out” meant in practice: the total destruction of these nations, with no peace treaty and no mercy.
  3. Deuteronomy 7:3The ban on their children marrying into these nations is not about ethnicity, but about religious risk: the next verse explains that these marriages would turn the children aside to other gods. The text’s central concern is faithfulness to the LORD, not people’s origin.
  4. Deuteronomy 7:4The reason behind the harsh command appears here: these mixed marriages would turn the children of Israel aside to other gods, stirring up God’s anger.
  5. Deuteronomy 7:5The concrete command against Canaanite idolatry: tear down altars, break sacred pillars, cut down the ritual groves, and burn the carved images.
  6. Deuteronomy 7:6The reason for so much strictness is Israel’s special identity: chosen by God to be His own people among all the nations of the earth.
  7. Deuteronomy 7:7Moses cuts off any pride at the root: God did not choose Israel because they were the most numerous people — in fact, they were one of the smallest.
  8. Deuteronomy 7:8The real reason for the choice is God’s love and the fulfillment of the ancient oath made to their ancestors, not any merit of the people’s own.
  9. Deuteronomy 7:9“To a thousand generations” uses the language of eternal duration typical of ancient treaties between kings: a way of saying that God’s commitment to those who love Him has no expiration date counted in years, but in unending faithfulness.
  10. Deuteronomy 7:10On the opposite side of faithfulness, whoever hates God is repaid to his face, without delay — a direct warning against rebellion.
  11. Deuteronomy 7:11After all that explanation comes the practical summary: keep the commandments, statutes, and judgments commanded that day.
  12. Deuteronomy 7:12The conditional promise is clear: obeying these judgments guarantees that God will keep the covenant and the kindness sworn to their ancestors.
  13. Deuteronomy 7:13The promised blessings include love, multiplied offspring, abundance of grain, wine, oil, and livestock.
  14. Deuteronomy 7:14Israel would be blessed in a visible way: more than any other people, with no barrenness among them or among their animals.
  15. Deuteronomy 7:15God promises to keep sicknesses away, especially the terrible plagues the people already knew from Egypt, turning them instead against their enemies.
  16. Deuteronomy 7:16The command to consume the conquered peoples comes with an extra warning: show no pity and do not serve their gods, because that would become a trap.
  17. Deuteronomy 7:17It anticipates the people’s natural doubt: how can they face nations more numerous than Israel?
  18. Deuteronomy 7:18The answer is to remember the past: the same God who defeated Pharaoh and all of Egypt is the one who will fight for them now.
  19. Deuteronomy 7:19It drives the point home by citing the plagues, signs, and wonders already seen in Egypt as proof that God will do the same against the new enemies.
  20. Deuteronomy 7:20God even promises to send hornets against the enemies, forcing those who remain to flee and hide.
  21. Deuteronomy 7:21The antidote to fear is remembering that God, great and awesome, is right in the midst of the people themselves.
  22. Deuteronomy 7:22The conquest would be gradual, little by little, so that the land would not become too empty and the wild animals would not multiply out of control.
  23. Deuteronomy 7:23Even though gradual, the final victory is guaranteed: God would hand these nations over and throw them into confusion until they were destroyed.
  24. Deuteronomy 7:24It even includes the enemy kings in the promise of victory: their names would be blotted out, and no one would stand against Israel.
  25. Deuteronomy 7:25It reinforces the ban on keeping even the gold and silver from the Canaanites’ religious images — coveting those metals would mean falling into the same idolatrous trap.
  26. Deuteronomy 7:26It closes the chapter with a final warning: bringing those idolatrous objects home would contaminate the people themselves with the same condemnation.

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