Deuteronomy 7

1When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and take as your own, and clears many nations out of your way, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations greater in number and might than you, 2and when the LORD your God hands them over to you and you defeat them, then you are to devote them wholly to destruction. Make no covenant with them, and grant them no favor. 3Do not join your families to theirs by marriage: your daughters are not to marry their sons, nor are your sons to take their daughters as wives. 4For they would draw your sons away from following me, into the service of other gods, and then the anger of the LORD would flare up against you and he would soon destroy you. 5Instead, deal with them in this way: pull down their altars, break their standing stones to pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images. 6You are a people set apart as holy to the LORD your God. From among every people on the face of the earth, the LORD your God picked you out to belong to him as his treasured possession.

7The LORD gave his heart to you and chose you, not because there were more of you than of any other people, for you were the smallest of all the peoples, 8but because the LORD loved you and would not break the oath he swore to your ancestors. So he led you out by his strong hand and bought you free from the house where you were slaves, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9So understand that the LORD your God is the true God, the faithful God. He keeps his covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments, 10but he repays those who hate him, each one in person, and destroys them. He does not put off dealing with anyone who hates him; he repays that person directly. 11So keep the commandment, the statutes and the rulings that I am giving you today, and carry them out.

12If you listen to these rulings and keep them and carry them out, then in return the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the faithful love he promised your ancestors on oath. 13He will love you, bless you and make you numerous. He will bless the children you bear and the harvest of your soil, your grain, your new wine and your olive oil, and the young of your cattle and your sheep, in the land he promised on oath to your ancestors to give you. 14Of all peoples, you will be the most blessed. Among you there will be no man or woman unable to have children, and among your animals none that bears no young. 15The LORD will keep every sickness away from you. None of the dreadful diseases of Egypt that you came to know will he bring on you; instead, he will put them on all who hate you. 16You are to make an end of all the peoples the LORD your God is handing over to you. Let no pity for them hold you back, and do not serve their gods; that would be a trap to catch you.

17Perhaps you will think to yourself, ‘These nations outnumber us. How could we ever drive them out?’ 18Do not fear them. Keep firmly in mind what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and the whole of Egypt, 19the great trials that you watched with your own eyes, the signs, the wonders, the strong hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God led you out. That is what the LORD your God will do to every people you are afraid of. 20What is more, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them, until even those left alive and in hiding from you are gone. 21Do not tremble before them. The LORD your God is there among you, a God great and awe-inspiring. 22The LORD your God will clear these nations out of your way a little at a time. You will not be able to finish them off all at once, or the wild animals would become too many for you. 23The LORD your God will hand them over to you and throw them into great panic until they are wiped out. 24He will put their kings in your power, and you will blot their name out from under heaven. No one will hold out against you until you have destroyed them. 25Burn the carved images of their gods in the fire. Do not set your heart on the silver or gold that covers them, and do not carry it off for yourself; it would catch you like a trap, for the LORD your God detests it. 26Do not bring anything detestable into your home; if you do, you will become a devoted thing just as it is, marked for destruction. Loathe it and detest it with all your being, for it is a devoted thing.