Study Desk

"^(C1)When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to take possession of it, and He drives away many nations from before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, ^(C2)seven nations greater and mightier than you,

and when the LORD your God turns them over to you and you ^(F1)defeat them, ^(C1)you shall ^(F2)utterly destroy them. ^(C2)You shall not make a covenant with them ^(C3)nor be gracious to them.

"Furthermore, ^(C1)you shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your ^(F1)daughters to ^(F2)their sons, nor shall you take ^(F3)their daughters for your ^(F4)sons.

"For ^(F1)they will turn your ^(F2)sons away from ^(F3)following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and ^(C1)He will quickly destroy you.

"But this is what you shall do to them: ^(C1)you shall tear down their altars, smash their memorial stones, cut their ^(F1)Asherim to pieces, and burn their carved images in the fire.

"For you are ^(C1)a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be ^(C2)a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ^(F1)earth.

"^(C1)The LORD did not ^(F1)make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples,

but because the LORD loved you and kept the ^(C1)oath which He swore to your forefathers, ^(C2)the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of ^(F1)slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

"Know therefore that the LORD your God, ^(C1)He is God, ^(C2)the faithful God, ^(C3)who keeps ^(F1)His covenant and ^(F1)His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who ^(C4)love Him and keep His commandments;

but He ^(C1)repays those who hate Him to ^(F1)their faces, to eliminate ^(F2)them; He will not hesitate toward him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

"Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

"^(C1)Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep ^(F1)His covenant with you and ^(F1)His faithfulness which He swore to your forefathers.

"And He will ^(C1)love you, bless you, and ^(C2)make you numerous; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the newborn of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, ^(F1)in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.

"You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no sterile male or ^(C1)infertile female among you or among your cattle.

"And ^(C1)the LORD will remove from you all sickness; and He will not inflict upon you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you.

"You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God will turn over to you; ^(C1)your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(C2)a snare to you.

"If you say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I ^(C1)dispossess them?'

you are not to be afraid of them; you shall ^(C1)remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

^(C1)the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

"Indeed, the LORD your God will send ^(C1)the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.

"You are not to be terrified of them, because ^(C1)the LORD your God is in your midst, ^(C2)a great and awesome God.

"^(C1)And the LORD your God will drive away these nations from you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, otherwise the ^(F1)wild animals would become too numerous for you.

"^(C1)But the LORD your God will turn them over to you, and will ^(F1)throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

"^(C1)And He will hand over their kings to you, so that you will eliminate their name from under heaven; ^(C2)no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

"The carved images of their gods you are to ^(C1)burn with fire; you shall ^(C2)not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be ^(C3)trapped by it; for it is an ^(C4)abomination to the LORD your God.

"And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become ^(C1)designated for destruction, like it; you are to utterly detest it, and you are to utterly loathe it, for it is something designated for destruction.

"All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you ^(C1)may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.

"^(C1)And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has ^(C2)led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, ^(C3)putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

"And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you ^(F1)understand that ^(C1)man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the LORD.

"^(C1)Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

"^(C1)So you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

"Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to ^(F1)fear Him.

"For ^(C1)the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills;

a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

"When ^(C1)you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

"Be careful that you do not ^(C1)forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today;

otherwise, ^(C1)when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them,

and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases,

then your heart will ^(F1)become proud and you will ^(C1)forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^(F2)slavery;

He who led you through ^(C1)the great and terrible wilderness, with its ^(C2)fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who ^(C3)brought water for you out of the rock of flint.

"In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna ^(C1)which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to ^(C2)put you to the test, to do good for you ^(F1)in the end.

"Otherwise, ^(C1)you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.'

"But you are to remember the LORD your God, for ^(C1)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

"And it shall come about, if you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, ^(C1)I testify against you today that you will certainly perish.

"Like the nations that the LORD eliminates from you, so ^(C1)you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.