The Wilderness Years

expelling all your enemies ahead of you, as ADONAI said.

"Some day your child will ask you, 'What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings which ADONAI our God has laid down for you?'

Then you will tell your child, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and ADONAI brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.

ADONAI worked great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household, before our very eyes.

He brought us out from there in order to bring us to the land he had sworn to our ancestors that he would give us.

ADONAI ordered us to observe all these laws, to fear ADONAI our God, always for our own good, so that he might keep us alive, as we are today.

It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to obey all these mitzvot before ADONAI our God, just as he ordered us to do.'"

"ADONAI your God is going to bring you into the land you will enter in order to take possession of it, and he will expel many nations ahead of you -the Hitti, Girgashi, Emori, Kena'ani, P'rizi, Hivi and Y'vusi, seven nations bigger and stronger than you.

When he does this, when ADONAI your God hands them over ahead of you, and you defeat them, you are to destroy them completely! Do not make any covenant with them. Show them no mercy.

Don't intermarry with them -don't give your daughter to his son, and don't take his daughter for your son.

For he will turn your children away from following me in order to serve other gods. If this happens, the anger of ADONAI will flare up against you, and he will quickly destroy you.

No, treat them this way: break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, cut down their sacred poles and burn up their carved images completely.

For you are a people set apart as holy for ADONAI your God. ADONAI your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his own unique treasure.

ADONAI didn't set his heart on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people - on the contrary, you were the fewest of all peoples.

Rather, it was because ADONAI loved you, and because he wanted to keep the oath which he had sworn to your ancestors, that ADONAI brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from a life of slavery under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

From this you can know that ADONAI your God is indeed God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot, to a thousand generations.

But he repays those who hate him to their face and destroys them. He will not be slow to deal with someone who hates him; he will repay him to his face.

Therefore, you are to keep the mitzvot, laws and rulings which I am giving you today, and obey them.

"Because you are listening to these rulings, keeping and obeying them, ADONAI your God will keep with you the covenant and mercy that he swore to your ancestors.

He will love you, bless you and increase your numbers; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground - your grain, wine, olive oil and the young of your cattle and sheep - in the land he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.

You will be blessed more than all other peoples; there will not be a sterile male or female among you, and the same with your livestock.

ADONAI will remove all illness from you - he will not afflict you with any of Egypt's dreadful diseases, which you have known; instead, he will lay them on those who hate you.

You are to devour all the peoples that ADONAI your God hands over to you - show them no pity, and do not serve their gods, because that will become a trap for you.

If you think to yourselves, 'These nations outnumber us; how can we dispossess them?'

nevertheless, you are not to be afraid of them; you are to remember well what ADONAI your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt -