1 "The LORD your God will bring you into the land you are going to enter and possess, and he will drive out many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you.
2 When the LORD your God hands them over to you and you defeat them, you must utterly devote them to destruction. Make no covenant with them and show them no favor.
3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
4 for they would turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. Then the LORD's anger would blaze against you, and he would quickly destroy you.
5 Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherim, and burn their carved images in the fire.
6 "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special people.
7 The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you outnumbered all other peoples, for you were the smallest of all peoples.
8 It was because the LORD loved you and was keeping the oath he swore to your fathers that the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 So know that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and his steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments,
10 but who repays to their face those who hate him, destroying them. He does not hesitate with the one who hates him; he repays him to his face.
11 So keep the commandment, the statutes and the rules I am giving you today, and carry them out.
12 "If you listen to these rules and are careful to carry them out, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love he swore to your fathers.
13 He will love you, bless you, and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil, your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks, in the land he swore to your fathers to give you.
14 You will be blessed more than any other people. No man or woman among you will be childless, and none of your livestock will be barren.
15 The LORD will keep all sickness away from you. He will not bring on you any of the dreadful diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.
16 You must devour all the peoples the LORD your God is handing over to you. Do not look on them with pity, and do not serve their gods, for that would be a trap for you.
17 "You may say to yourself, 'These nations are greater than I am; how can I drive them out?'
18 But do not be afraid of them. Keep in mind what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19 the great trials you saw with your own eyes, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear.
20 The LORD your God will also send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.
21 Do not tremble before them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.
22 The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be allowed to wipe them out all at once, or the wild animals would become too many for you.
23 But the LORD your God will hand them over to you and will throw them into great panic until they are destroyed.
24 He will give their kings into your hand, and you will blot out their name from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up to you until you have destroyed them.
25 Burn the carved images of their gods in the fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, and do not take it for yourself, or you will be trapped by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
26 Do not bring an abomination into your house, or you, like it, will be devoted to destruction. Utterly loathe it and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.