Deuteronomy 7
Command to Destroy and Separate 1–5
Israel Chosen by God's Love 6–11
Blessings for Covenant Obedience 12–16
Confidence in Conquest 17–26
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Deuteronomy 7
Verse 1
seven nations greater and mightier than thou — The seven are the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, and Acts 13:19 speaks of the LORD destroying ‘seven nations in the land of Chanaan’. Their strength is stated plainly (cf. 4:38; 9:1), and 9:3 answers it: ‘the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee’.
Verse 2
utterly destroy them — Charam, to devote to destruction, is doubled here for emphasis. The reason is given in 20:18, ‘that they teach you not to do after all their abominations’. The ban on a covenant is that of Ex 23:32–33: ‘lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.’
Verse 3
make marriages — Chathan, to join by marriage. The ban runs both ways, daughter given and daughter taken, and v.4 states the cause: ‘they will turn away thy son from following me’. Solomon is the example: ‘his wives turned away his heart after other gods’, though the LORD had said ‘Ye shall not go in to them’ (1 Kings 11:2–4).
Verse 5
their groves — ‘Groves’ translates asherah, a wooden pole set beside an altar; Gideon is told to ‘throw down the altar of Baal… and cut down the grove that is by it’ (Judg 6:25). The ‘images’ are matstsebah, standing stones, called ‘pillars’ in 12:3. Ex 34:13 gives the same command.
Verse 6
a special people — Segullah, a treasure kept as one’s own. Ex 19:5 renders it ‘a peculiar treasure’, and Peter applies the title to the church, ‘a peculiar people’ (1 Pet 2:9). Deut 14:2 repeats this verse almost word for word. ‘Holy’ (qadosh) means set apart to the LORD, and the choice is ‘above all people’.
Verse 7
did not set his love upon you — Chashaq, to cling to, to be attached; the verb recurs in 10:15, ‘the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them’. Israel was ‘the fewest’: the fathers ‘went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons’ (10:22). Paul draws the same line, ‘not of works, but of him that calleth’ (Rom 9:11).
Verse 8
because the LORD loved you — Love and the oath sworn ‘unto your fathers’ (cf. Ex 32:13) are given together as the cause of the exodus. ‘Redeemed’ is padah, to ransom, and ‘the house of bondmen’ is the ‘house of bondage’ of 5:6. Both hands are named: the LORD’s ‘mighty hand’ and ‘the hand of Pharaoh’.
Verse 9
the faithful God — Aman, to be firm and trustworthy. He ‘keepeth covenant and mercy’ (chesed, covenant love) ‘to a thousand generations’, as Ps 105:8 says of the covenant, ‘the word which he commanded to a thousand generations’. The reply asked of man is named, ‘them that love him and keep his commandments’ (as in 5:10), and Heb 10:23 says ‘he is faithful that promised’.
Verse 12
keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy — ‘Keep’ is shamar, to guard, the verb of vv.8–9: the LORD keeps the oath he swore, and the people keep the judgments. The ‘if’ is eqeb, from the word for a heel, so ‘as a result’; the blessings that follow in vv.13–15 come in the train of hearkening.
Verse 15
the evil diseases of Egypt — Madveh and choli are sickness and disease. Ex 15:26 holds the same promise: ‘I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.’ Deut 28:60 reverses it: ‘all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of’.
Verse 17
These nations are more than I — The thought is the spies’ (Num 13:32; Deut 1:28), ‘The people is greater and taller than we’. ‘Dispossess’ is yarash, the verb behind ‘possess’ in v.1. The question is spoken ‘in thine heart’, and v.18 answers: ‘Thou shalt not be afraid of them’.
Verse 18
well remember — The Hebrew doubles the verb (zakar), an infinitive with the verb itself: remembering, thou shalt remember. The object is what the LORD ‘did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt’, set out in v.19. Psalm 77:11 uses it as a vow, ‘I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.’
Verse 20
the hornet — Tsirah is found only three times: Ex 23:28, here, and Josh 24:12, ‘I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out… even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.’ It reaches those ‘that are left, and hide themselves from thee’.
Verse 22
by little and little — Ex 23:29–30 gives the same reason, ‘lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee’. Judg 2:23 records the nations left ‘without driving them out hastily’, and 2:22 adds another purpose, ‘that through them I may prove Israel’.
Verse 24
destroy their name from under heaven — The LORD says to Joshua, ‘there shall not a man of them stand before thee’ (Josh 10:8), and the list of Josh 12 ends ‘all the kings thirty and one’ (12:24). The same phrase, ‘name from under heaven’, is the LORD’s word about Israel itself after the calf, answered by Moses’ prayer (9:14).
Verse 25
thou shalt not desire — Chamad, the verb of the tenth commandment (5:21). Achan shows the snare: ‘I coveted them, and took them’ (Josh 7:21). The images are burned, as Moses burned the calf (Ex 32:20), because they are an ‘abomination’ (to’evah) to the LORD, and the silver and gold on them are not to be taken.
Verse 26
a cursed thing — Cherem, the noun of the verb ‘utterly destroy’ in v.2. The one who brings it home becomes it: ‘lest thou be a cursed thing like it’. Joshua warned Israel at Jericho, ‘lest ye make yourselves accursed’ (Josh 6:18), and after Achan the LORD said ‘neither will I be with you any more’ (Josh 7:12).