Deuteronomy 7:1-11

Why does the command to reject the nations’ worship also reject pride in being chosen?

Berean Standard Bible

1 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 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 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.

What is the context?

Moses commands the destruction of the named nations and their worship sites, forbids treaties, and forbids intermarriage that would turn Israel to other gods. These are severe conquest instructions, and the given concern about marriage is departure from the Lord.

Israel is called the Lord’s holy, prized possession, but its choice is not credited to superior numbers. The reason given is the Lord’s love and faithfulness to His oath to the fathers. That gift calls for obedience rather than pride or permission to imitate the worship being rejected.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley interprets the marriage restriction through its stated danger of idolatry and distinguishes it from marriage to someone who has turned to the Lord. He also stresses that God’s choice was not earned by Israel’s size or merit. The Westminster Confession 19.4 distinguishes Israel’s national judicial laws from laws directly binding other societies. The conquest instruction is not a warrant for private attacks or a general rule of racial segregation.

What is our position?

We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.

Where can I study this further?

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