All communion with the nations is forbidden, 1-4; for fear of idolatry, 5; for the holiness of the people, 6-8; for the nature of God in his mercy and justice, 9-16; for the assuredness of victory which God will give over them, 17-26.
1 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perrizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 And when the LORD your God delivers them before you, you shall smite them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. 3 You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, neither shall you take his daughter for your son, 4 For they will turn away your son from following me, so that they may serve other gods. Thus the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But this is how you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their engraved images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a special people for himself above all people who are upon the face of the earth.
7 "The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore, that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, 10 And 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. 11 You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you this day, to do them.
12 "Therefore, it shall come to pass, if you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers. 13 And he will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless your children, and the fruit of your land, your grain, your wine, and your oil, the increase of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall 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 you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which you know) upon you, but will lay them upon all those who hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the people which the LORD your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall have no pity upon them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17 "If you say in your heart, 'These nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them?' 18 You shall not be afraid of them, but shall well remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 The great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the out-stretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. Thus the LORD your God shall do to all the people of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God is among you, a mighty and awesome God. 22 And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you. 23 But the LORD your God shall deliver them to you and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they are destroyed. 24 And he shall deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under heaven. No man shall be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. 25 The engraved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you should be snared in it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 You shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you should be a cursed thing like it. But you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Deuteronomy, Chapter 7[➚]
[v.6] - Reference, Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2, 26:18-19; Titus 2:14; 1st Peter 2:9.
[v.9] - Reference, 2nd Timothy 2:13.