The Lord's Own People
(Exodus 34.11-16)1 “The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are going to occupy, and he will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, he will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 2 When the Lord your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. 3 Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, 4 because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods. If that happens, the Lord will be angry with you and destroy you at once. 5 So then, tear down their altars, break their sacred stone pillars in pieces, cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. 6 Do this because you belong to the Lord your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.
7 “The Lord did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. 8 But the Lord loved you and wanted to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors. That is why he saved you by his great might and set you free from slavery to the king of Egypt. 9 Remember that the Lord your God is the only God and that he is faithful. He will keep his covenant and show his constant love to a thousand generations of those who love him and obey his commands, 10 but he will not hesitate to punish those who hate him. 11 Now then, obey what you have been taught; obey all the laws that I have given you today.
The Blessings of Obedience
(Deuteronomy 28.1-14)12 “If you listen to these commands and obey them faithfully, then the Lord your God will continue to keep his covenant with you and will show you his constant love, as he promised your ancestors. 13 He will love you and bless you, so that you will increase in number and have many children; he will bless your fields, so that you will have grain, wine, and olive oil; and he will bless you by giving you many cattle and sheep. He will give you all these blessings in the land that he promised your ancestors he would give to you. 14 No people in the world will be as richly blessed as you. None of you nor any of your livestock will be sterile. 15 The Lord will protect you from all sickness, and he will not bring on you any of the dreadful diseases that you experienced in Egypt, but he will bring them on all your enemies. 16 Destroy every nation that the Lord your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal.
17 “Do not tell yourselves that these peoples outnumber you and that you cannot drive them out. 18 Do not be afraid of them; remember what the Lord your God did to the king of Egypt and to all his people. 19 Remember the terrible plagues that you saw with your own eyes, the miracles and wonders, and the great power and strength by which the Lord your God set you free. In the same way that he destroyed the Egyptians, he will destroy all these people that you now fear. 20 He will even cause panic among them and will destroy those who escape and go into hiding. 21 So do not be afraid of these people. The Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and one to be feared. 22 Little by little he will drive out these nations as you advance. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, for, if you did, the number of wild animals would increase and be a threat to you. 23 The Lord will put your enemies in your power and make them panic until they are destroyed. 24 He will put their kings in your power. You will kill them, and they will be forgotten. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy everyone. 25 Burn their idols. Do not desire the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourselves. If you do, that will be fatal, because the Lord hates idolatry. 26 Do not bring any of these idols into your homes, or the same curse will be on you that is on them. You must hate and despise these idols, because they are under the Lord's curse.
1 When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possesse it, and shall roote out many nations before thee: the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, seuen nations greater and mightier then thou, 2 And the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, then thou shalt smite them: thou shalt vtterly destroy them: thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor haue compassion on them, 3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, neither giue thy daughter vnto his sonne, nor take his daughter vnto thy sonne. 4 For they wil cause thy sonne to turne away from me, and to serue other gods: then will the wrath of the Lord waxe hote against you and destroy thee suddenly. 5 But thus ye shall deale with them, Ye shall ouerthrowe their altars, and breake downe their pillars, and ye shall cut downe their groues, and burne their grauen images with fire. 6 For thou art an holy people vnto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be a precious people vnto himselfe, aboue all people that are vpon the earth. 7 The Lord did not set his loue vpon you, nor chose you, because ye were more in number then any people: for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the Lord loued you, and because hee would keepe the othe which hee had sworne vnto your fathers, the Lord hath brought you out by a mightie hand, and deliuered you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt, 9 That thou mayest knowe, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithfull God which keepeth couenant and mercie vnto them that loue him and keepe his commandements, euen to a thousand generations, 10 And rewardeth them to their face that hate him, to bring them to destruction: he wil not deferre to reward him that hateth him, to his face. 11 Keepe thou therefore the commandements, and the ordinances, and the lawes, which I commaund thee this day to doe them. 12 For if ye hearken vnto these lawes, and obserue and doe them, then the Lord thy God shall keepe with thee the couenant, and the mercie which he sware vnto thy fathers. 13 And he wil loue thee, and blesse thee, and multiplie thee: he will also blesse the fruite of thy wombe, and the fruite of thy land, thy corne and thy wine, and thine oyle and the increase of thy kine, and the flockes of thy sheepe in the land, which he sware vnto thy fathers to giue thee. 14 Thou shalt be blessed aboue all people: there shall be neither male nor female barren among you, nor among your cattell. 15 Moreouer, the Lord will take away from thee all infirmities, and will put none of the euill diseases of Egypt (which thou knowest) vpon thee, but wil send them vpon all that hate thee. 16 Thou shalt therefore consume all people which the Lord thy God shall giue thee: thine eye shall not spare them, neither shalt thou serue their gods, for that shalbe thy destruction. 17 If thou say in thine heart, These nations are moe then I, how can I cast them out? 18 Thou shalt not feare them, but remember what the Lord thy God did vnto Pharaoh, and vnto all Egypt: 19 The great tentations which thine eyes sawe, and the signes and wonders, and the mighty hand and stretched out arme, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do vnto all ye people, whose face thou fearest. 20 Moreouer, the Lord thy God will send hornets among them vntil they that are left, and hide themselues from thee, be destroyed. 21 Thou shalt not feare them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a God mightie and dreadful. 22 And the Lord thy God wil roote out these nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, least the beasts of the fielde increase vpon thee. 23 But the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, and shall destroy them with a mightie destruction, vntill they be brought to naught. 24 And he shall deliuer their Kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from vnder heauen: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, vntill thou hast destroyed them. 25 The grauen images of their gods shall ye burne with fire, and couet not the siluer and golde, that is on them, nor take it vnto thee, least thou be snared therewith: for it is an abomination before the Lord thy God. 26 Bring not therefore abomination into thine house, lest, thou be accursed like it, but vtterly abhorre it, and count it most abominable: for it is accursed.