Deuteronomy 7

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 'When Yahweh your God has brought you into the country which you are going to make your own,many nations wil fal before you: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,seven nations greater and stronger than yourselves.	1 "When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, and dislodges great nations before you--the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites: seven nations more numerous and powerful than you--
2 Yahweh your God will put them at your mercy and you will conquer them. You must put them under thecurse of destruction. You must not make any treaty with them or show them any pity.	2 and when the LORD, your God, delivers them up to you and you defeat them, you shall doom them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.
3 You must not intermarry with them; you must not give a daughter of yours to a son of theirs, or take adaughter of theirs for a son of yours,	3 You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons.
4 for your son would be seduced from fol owing me into serving other gods; the wrath of Yahweh wouldblaze out against you and he would instantly destroy you.	4 For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the wrath of the LORD would flare up against you and quickly destroy you.
5 Instead, treat them like this: tear down their altars, smash their standing-stones, cut down their sacredpoles and burn their idols.	5 "But this is how you must deal with them: Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their sacred poles, and destroy their idols by fire.
6 For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; of al the peoples on earth, you have beenchosen by Yahweh your God to be his own people.	6 For you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.
7 'Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of al peoples --for indeed you were the smal est of al -	7 It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations.
8 but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was whyYahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the powerof Pharaoh king of Egypt.	8 It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your fathers, that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
9 From this you can see that Yahweh your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true tohis covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep hiscommandments,	9 Understand, then, that the LORD, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant down to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,
10 punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay;and it is in their own persons that he punishes them.	10 but who repays with destruction the person who hates him; he does not dally with such a one, but makes him personally pay for it.
11 Hence, you must keep and observe the commandments, laws and customs which I am laying downfor you today.	11 You shall therefore carefully observe the commandments, the statutes and the decrees which I enjoin on you today.
12 'Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return Yahweh your God wil betrue to the covenant and love which he promised on oath to your ancestors.	12 "As your reward for heeding these decrees and observing them carefully, the LORD, your God, will keep with you the merciful covenant which he promised on oath to your fathers.
13 He wil love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he wil bless the fruit of your body and theproduce of your soil, your corn, your new wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in thecountry which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.	13 He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks, in the land which he swore to your fathers he would give you.
14 You wil be the most blessed of al peoples. None of you, man or woman, will be sterile, no male orfemale of your beasts infertile.	14 You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren.
15 Yahweh wil deflect al il ness from you; he wil not afflict you with those evil plagues of Egypt whichyou have known, but will inflict them on al who hate you.	15 The LORD will remove all sickness from you; he will not afflict you with any of the malignant diseases that you know from Egypt, but will leave them with all your enemies.
16 'So, devour all the peoples whom Yahweh your God puts at your mercy, show them no pity, do notserve their gods: or you wil be ensnared.	16 "You shall consume all the nations which the LORD, your God, will deliver up to you. You are not to look on them with pity, lest you be ensnared into serving their gods.
17 'You may say in your heart, "These nations outnumber me; how shal I be able to dispossess them?"	17 Perhaps you will say to yourselves, 'These nations are greater than we. How can we dispossess them?'
18 Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yahweh your God treated Pharaoh and all Egypt,	18 But do not be afraid of them. Rather, call to mind what the LORD, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19 the great ordeals that you yourselves have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand andoutstretched arm with which Yahweh your God brought you out. This is how Yahweh your God will treat al thepeoples whom you fear to face.	19 the great testings which your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, his strong hand and outstretched arm with which the LORD, your God, brought you out. The same also will he do to all the nations of whom you are now afraid.
20 And what is more, Yahweh your God wil send hornets to destroy those who are left and who hidefrom you.	20 Moreover, the LORD, your God, will send hornets among them, until the survivors who have hidden from you are destroyed.
21 'Do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and terrible God.	21 Therefore, do not be terrified by them, for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God.
22 Little by little, Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you; you cannot destroy them allat once, or wild animals wil breed and be disastrous for you.	22 He will dislodge these nations before you little by little. You cannot exterminate them all at once, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you.
23 But Yahweh your God wil put them at your mercy, and disaster after disaster wil overtake them untilthey are finally destroyed.	23 The LORD, your God, will deliver them up to you and will rout them utterly until they are annihilated.
24 He wil put their kings at your mercy and you wil blot out their names under heaven; no one wil beable to resist you -- until you have destroyed them al .	24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, that you may make their names perish from under the heavens. No man will be able to stand up against you, till you have put an end to them.
25 'You must burn the statues of their gods, not coveting the gold and silver that covers them; take it andyou wil be caught in a snare: it is detestable to Yahweh your God.	25 The images of their gods you shall destroy by fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD, your God.
26 You must not bring any detestable thing into your house: or you, like it, wil come under the curse ofdestruction. You must regard them as unclean and loathsome, for they are under the curse of destruction.'	26 You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, lest you be doomed with it; loathe and abhor it utterly as a thing that is doomed.