Deuteronomy 7 · WEB
A Holy People: Separation, Election, and God's Faithful Love
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When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you—
2and when the LORD your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
3You shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
4For he will turn your son away from following me, that they may serve other gods. So the LORD's anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
5But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
6For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7The LORD didn't set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8But because the LORD loves you, and because he keeps the oath which he swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
10and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
11You shall therefore keep the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you today, to do them.
12It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers.
13He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the increase of your livestock, 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 shall be no male or female barren among you, or among your livestock.
15The LORD will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
16You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17If you shall say in your heart, "These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?"
18you shall not be afraid of them. You shall well remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So the LORD your God will do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and those who hide themselves, have perished from before you.
21You shall not be scared of them; for the LORD your God is among you, a great and awesome God.
22The LORD your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase upon you.
23But the LORD your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky. No one shall be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.
25You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
26You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly loathe it; for it is a devoted thing.
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Summary
Moses commands Israel to completely destroy the Canaanite nations and their places of worship, to avoid intermarriage, and to make no covenants with them — all to prevent Israel being drawn into idolatry. He grounds these commands not in Israel's greatness but in God's sovereign, gracious choice: Israel was the smallest of peoples, chosen purely because of God's love and his faithfulness to the patriarchal promises. God's covenant faithfulness extends to a thousand generations of those who love him. The chapter closes with practical encouragement not to fear the stronger Canaanite nations, since God himself will fight for Israel.
Themes
- Divine election based entirely on God's love and covenant faithfulness, not human merit
- Holiness as separation — being set apart for God requires separation from corrupting influences
- God's character: faithful, loving (hesed), and committed across generations
- The danger of spiritual compromise through proximity to idolatry
- Fear replaced by trust in God's power to fight for his people
Key verses
- Deut 7:6 — “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
- Deut 7:7-8 — “The LORD didn't set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people...but because the LORD loves you, and because he keeps the oath which he swore to your fathers.”
- Deut 7:9 — “Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”
Context & background
The seven Canaanite nations listed occupied the land of modern Israel and Palestine — the hill country, coastal plains, valleys, and highlands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The Jebusites held Jerusalem. The command of "devoted destruction" (Hebrew: herem) is among the most ethically challenging passages in the Old Testament; it must be read in its ancient Near Eastern context where such language was also used rhetorically in other conquest accounts, and understood within the broader canonical narrative that moves toward redemption of all nations. The Asherah poles were wooden objects associated with the Canaanite fertility goddess Asherah, part of a widespread religious system that included ritual prostitution and child sacrifice.
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:9 — Christians described as "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" — echoing Deut 7:6
- Ephesians 1:4-5 — Believers chosen "in him before the foundation of the world"
- Genesis 15:19-21 — God's original promise to give Abraham the land of these same seven nations
- Joshua 23:12-13 — Joshua warns of the consequences of intermarrying with remaining Canaanites
- Romans 9:11-13 — Paul cites divine election as preceding human works