Drive Out the Nations 1 CPDV “When the Lord your God will have led you to the land, which you will enter so as to possess it, and when he will have destroyed many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more numerous than you, and more robust than you, BSB BSB: When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 CPDV and when the Lord your God will have delivered them to you, you shall strike them down unto utter annihilation. You shall not enter into a pact with them, nor shall you show any pity to them. BSB BSB: and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
3 CPDV And you shall not associate with them in marriage. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor accept his daughter for your son. BSB BSB: Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
4 CPDV For she will seduce your son, so that he will not follow me, and so that he will instead serve foreign gods. And the fury of the Lord will be enraged, and he will quickly destroy you. BSB BSB: because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.
5 CPDV So instead, you shall do this to them: overturn their altars, and break their statues, and cut down their sacred groves, and burn up their graven images. BSB BSB: Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.
6 CPDV For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you so that you would be his particular people out of all the peoples who are upon the earth. BSB BSB: For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.
7 CPDV It is not because you surpass all the nations in number that the Lord has joined with you and has chosen you, for you are the least numerous of any people. BSB BSB: The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8 CPDV But it is because the Lord has loved you, and has kept his oath, which he swore to your fathers. And he has led you away with a strong hand, and he has redeemed you from the house of servitude, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. BSB BSB: But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 CPDV And you shall know that the Lord your God himself is a strong and faithful God, preserving his covenant and his mercy for those who love him and those who keep his precepts for a thousand generations, BSB BSB: Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
10 CPDV and promptly repaying those who hate him, so as to utterly ruin them, without further delay, quickly rendering to them what they deserve. BSB BSB: But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.
11 CPDV Therefore, keep the precepts and ceremonies as well as the judgments, which I command to you this day, so that you may do them. BSB BSB: So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.
The Promises of God (Exodus 23:20–33)
12 CPDV If, after you have heard these judgments, you keep and do them, the Lord your God will also keep his covenant with you and the mercy that he swore to your fathers. BSB BSB: If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers.
13 CPDV And he will love you and multiply you. And he will bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land: your grain as well as your vintage, oil, and herds, and the flocks of your sheep, upon the land about which he swore to your fathers that he would give it to you. BSB BSB: He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.
14 CPDV Blessed shall you be among all peoples. No one will be barren among you of either gender, as much among men as among your herds. BSB BSB: You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.
15 CPDV The Lord will take all sickness away from you. And the very grievous infirmities of Egypt, which you have known, he will not bring upon you, but upon your enemies. BSB BSB: And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.
16 CPDV You shall devour all the peoples, which the Lord your God will deliver to you. Your eye shall not spare them, neither shall you serve their gods, lest they be your ruin. BSB BSB: You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17 CPDV If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are more than I am, so how will I be able to destroy them?’ BSB BSB: You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”
18 CPDV do not be apprehensive. Instead, recall what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians: BSB BSB: But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:
19 CPDV the very great plagues, which your eyes saw, and the signs and wonders, and the powerful hand and outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God led you away. So will he do to all the peoples, whom you dread. BSB BSB: the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty 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 now fear.
20 CPDV Moreover, the Lord your God will also send hornets among them, until he destroys and scatters all who have escaped from you, or who have been able to hide. BSB BSB: Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.
21 CPDV You shall not fear them, for the Lord your God is in your midst: a great and terrible God. BSB BSB: Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.
22 CPDV He himself will consume these nations in your sight, a little at a time, by degrees. You will not be able to destroy them all at once. Otherwise, the wild beasts of the earth might increase against you. BSB BSB: The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.
23 CPDV And so, the Lord your God will present them in your sight, and you shall slay them until they are thoroughly wiped away. BSB BSB: But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24 CPDV And he shall deliver their kings into your hands, and you shall abolish their names from under heaven. No one will be able to withstand you, until you crush them. BSB BSB: He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.
25 CPDV Their graven images, you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold from which they have been made. And you shall not take for yourself anything from these, lest you offend, because this is an abomination to the Lord your God. BSB BSB: You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
26 CPDV Neither shall you carry anything of the idol into your house, lest you become accursed, just as it also is. You shall detest it like dung, and you shall abominate it like defilement and filth, because it is an accursed thing.” BSB BSB: And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.