Deu 7 | EE | STEP | The LORD your God is bringing you into the country that will be your country. He will send away many people from other countries, in front of you. There are seven nations that are larger and stronger than you are. They are the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Deuteronomy 7

What they should do when God brings them into the country

1 The LORD your God is bringing you into the country that will be your country. He will send away many people from other countries, in front of you. There are seven nations that are larger and stronger than you are. They are the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 2 When the LORD your God has given them to you, you will beat them. Then you must kill them completely. Make no promises to them and do not be kind to them. 3 You must not marry any of these people. Do not let your daughters marry their sons. Do not take their daughters to marry your sons. 4 This is because they will turn your sons away from God’s rules. Then your sons will begin to obey other gods. The LORD will be very angry with you and he will quickly kill you. 5 This is what you must do to the people of these countries. Break the stone tables where they offer animals to their gods. Cut down the very tall sticks there that they have used to worship their gods. Burn their false gods in a fire. 6 Do this because you are special people. You belong to the LORD your God. He has chosen you out of everyone who lives on the earth. You are his own people and he loves you very much.

7 The LORD loved you and chose you. This was not because you were the largest nation on the earth. No, you were only a few people, the smallest nation on the earth. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you. And he wanted his promise to your ancestors to become true. So he saved you by his powerful authority and he brought you out of Egypt. Then he made you free from the power of Pharaoh, when you were Pharaoh’s slaves. 9 Remember that the LORD your God is the only God. You can always believe in him. He has made a promise to all those who love him.

If they obey him, he will love them and all their children for thousands (1000s) of years. 10 But,

he will kill those who hate him;

he will not be slow to punish them.

11 So be careful! Obey all the rules that I am teaching you today.

12 Listen to these rules and obey them. If you do that, the LORD your God will continue to love you. He promised your ancestors that he would do this. 13 He will love you and he will stay with you always. He will give you many children and he will be with your babies. He will make good food grow in your fields. He will give you plenty of food and drink. He will be with all your animals and give you many cows and sheep. He will do this in the country that he is giving to you. He made this promise to your ancestors. 14 God will make you greater than anyone else on the earth. You will all have children and none of your animals will be without young animals. 15 The LORD will give you good health. He will not send to you any of the bad illnesses from Egypt that you knew about. He will send these illnesses to people who hate you. 16 You must kill the people in every nation that the LORD your God gives to you. Do not be kind to them and do not obey their gods. They will only make you rebel against your God.

17 Perhaps you will say to each other, ‘The people in these nations are stronger than we are. We cannot send them away.’

18 But do not be afraid of them. You must remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all the people from Egypt. 19 You saw it all with your own eyes. You saw the great troubles, the strange and powerful things that happened there. And you saw the LORD your God bring you out with great authority. He will do this again to all the people that make you afraid. 20 Also, the LORD your God will send cruel insects among these people. Even those people who hide from you will die. 21 Do not let anyone frighten you. The LORD your God is among you. He is a great and powerful God. 22 The LORD your God will send away the people from those nations, one at a time. He will not let you kill them immediately. If he did that, wild animals would soon fill the country round you. 23 But the LORD your God will give all the people in these nations to you. He will confuse them completely and he will kill them. 24 He will give their kings to you and no one will remember them any more. No one will be able to beat you. You will kill them all. 25 You must burn their false gods in a fire. You must not want to keep the silver and gold on the gods. The LORD your God hates it. So do not take it for yourselves because it will cause trouble for you. 26 Do not bring anything that God hates into your house. If you do, he will put a mark on you, to destroy both you and the bad thing. God has said that he will destroy it. So you must hate it also.