Deuteronomy 7:1-26
1 When 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;
2 And 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:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For 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.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images,a and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
6 For 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.
7 The 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:
8 But 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.
9 Know 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;
10 And 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.
11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, ifb 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:
13 And 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.
14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 And 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.
16 And 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.
17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
19 The 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.
20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
22 And 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.
23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
24 And 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.
25 The 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.
26 Neither 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.
Deuteronomy 7:3. Neither make marriages with them. See note on Ezra 10:2.
Deuteronomy 7:5. And cut down their groves. The patriarchal devotion being performed at first on hills, and in places destitute of shelter, woods and groves were most desirable retreats for the divine service. Hence Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba. Genesis 21:33. But houses of retirement and wickedness were built by the Israelites in the times of apostasy. The Egyptians and the Greeks were the first, after the Babylonians, who built temples to false divinities. The Israelites, having now but one altar, would the more readily accede to the injunction to destroy the groves of Baal.
Deuteronomy 7:15. The evil diseases of Egypt. The boils and blains, as in Exodus 9. The whole of this chapter enumerates blessings, rather than precepts.
Deuteronomy 7:20. The hornet. These driven from a hive, can prove a severe scourge to man, when divinely multiplied and commissioned. They are darker in colour and larger than the wasp.
Deuteronomy 7:26. It is a cursed thing: חרם chairem, a devoted thing; such was every idol, devoted to execration; but good things were devoted to holy purposes. Leviticus 27:28. The same word being used in both cases, the connection determines the sense.
REFLECTIONS.
Moses, proceeding with the repetition of the law, enforces anew the sentence of destruction or exile, on all the seven devoted nations. There were five other tribes or nations, whose country was given to the Hebrews. The Kenites, whom Saul spared for former kindness; the Kenizites, the Kadmonites, the Rephaims or giants, Genesis 15:19, whose country was included in the promised land; and the nation of Amalek. Now, with the seven nations, Israel was to make no covenant whatever. Their iniquities were full, and heaven could no longer restrain the punishment. Some persons have been struck with an idea of cruelty in this oft repeated sentence. I am struck with astonishment, that God should spare them so long. Israel never trifled with this awful injunction, but it proved a snare to their nation. Saul lost his kingdom for the want of fidelity to the righteous decree. The visitation is nothing new in the economy of providence. How often, in the history of nations, do we find the like calamity inflicted on cities and kingdoms. And ah, on how many more is the same sentence of destruction, or flight, but suspended, because of a long series of accumulated crimes.
To promote humility and obedience the Jews are faithfully reminded, that they were not redeemed from Egypt and called to all these privileges, because of their number or goodness; but because of the free and unmerited love of God, and because he was faithful to the promise and oath made to their fathers. Ezekiel places this argument in full force, and in language highly figurative: Ezekiel 16:1. St. Paul says the same of the christian church, risen with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places. We were dead in trespasses and sins, we walked according to the course of this world, and according to the power and influence of the devil. But God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he hath loved us, has done all these unmerited favours for the soul. What gratitude, what devotion do we owe for the riches of his grace!
God would gradually cut off and expel the seven devoted nations from the land, but would not destroy them all at once, lest the wild beasts should multiply. But how was that done? Did Israel spare a few in every city? No; for that would have corrupted them; and after such kindness they could not have been put to death. But Israel made their way good by conquest as far as they went. They slew all who came within their power, drove the rest before them, except those of certain strong places, as Zion in Jerusalem, which they could not then take. Let the christian do the same in his warfare with indwelling corruption; let him, like Joshua, make his way good as he proceeds. Let him, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, so mortify self-love, anger and pride, that he shall feel it no more; and fresh strength will be afforded for fresh conflicts. Let him remember that God has said of his sins, as well as of the Canaanites, ye shall utterly destroy them.
It is very remarkable also, that the gems and chains pendent to the heathen gods were accursed; and the Israelite who should secrete any of them, would bring that curse upon himself. The very gold was so polluted that the fire would not purify it. Hence the christian may learn the sanctity of God: he will never compound with idols. All our sinful pleasures, honours and delights, are to be accounted but dross and dung in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we may be the Lord's people without rebuke.