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Deuteronomy 7

Israel’s conquest commands and covenant promises rest on YHWH’s faithful love and his claim to their undivided allegiance.

Moses addresses Israel before its entry into a land occupied by seven stronger nations. He commands their destruction and the removal of their worship sites, forbidding treaties and marriages that would lead Israel to other gods. He grounds Israel’s distinct place in YHWH’s love and oath to their ancestors. Promises of health and abundance accompany the call to obedience. Against fear of the coming battles, Moses recalls deliverance from Egypt and promises that God will drive the nations out in stages.

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1When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—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 make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
4For that would turn away your sons 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 desires to keep 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 himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments,
10and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
11You shall therefore keep the commandments, 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 and your new wine and 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 will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be 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 remember well 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 shall the LORD your God 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 hide themselves, perish 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 on 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 perish from under the sky. No one will 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 snared in 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 abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Deuteronomy 7:6Israel’s identity as God’s chosen possession grounds the commands to remain distinct from the nations and their worship.
Deuteronomy 7:9God’s covenant faithfulness anchors the call to love and obey him, alongside the warning that he judges those who hate him.
Deuteronomy 7:15Protection from sickness belongs to the covenant blessings promised to obedient Israel in the land, with Egypt’s diseases recalled.
Where this chapter reaches

Exodus supplies the deliverance from Pharaoh recalled here, while Joshua recounts Israel’s entry into the land and conflict with its nations. The language of a holy people belonging to God also appears in 1 Peter, linking the texts through the theme of God’s chosen possession.

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After reading the whole chapter

What troubles you or needs closer study in the relationship between God’s love and these destruction commands?

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How does Moses use Israel’s small size and rescue from Egypt to address its fear?

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Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 7

Why does Deuteronomy 7 command Israel to destroy the Canaanite nations?

The command concerns seven named nations in the land Israel is entering. The chapter connects their destruction and the removal of worship sites with the danger of Israel serving other gods. It portrays God directing the conquest. These severe commands address Israel’s particular conquest; they provide no standing authorization for religious violence.

Does Deuteronomy 7:15 promise that Christians will never get sick?

Verse 15 belongs to promises addressed to Israel concerning life in the land sworn to their ancestors. The surrounding verses connect obedience with fertility, harvests, livestock, and protection from disease. The passage does not establish that every Christian will remain healthy or that a person’s illness proves disobedience.

Why does Deuteronomy 7 forbid intermarriage?

The prohibition concerns marriages between Israelites and the peoples named at the chapter’s opening. Verse 4 states the reason: such marriages would turn Israel’s children away from YHWH to serve other gods. The stated concern is allegiance in worship. The passage does not discuss every marriage across ethnic or national lines.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).