1When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out many nations before you — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you —
2and when the LORD your God hands them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
4because they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods. Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.
5Instead, this is what you must do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images.
6For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his treasured possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples — you were the fewest of all peoples.
8It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Know therefore that the LORD your God is the faithful God who keeps his covenant and steadfast love for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments,
10but he pays back those who hate him to their face by destroying them. He will not be slow to repay the one who hates him — he will pay them back to their face.
11So keep the commands, statutes, and ordinances I am giving you today, and follow them.
12If you listen to and faithfully follow these ordinances, the LORD your God will keep his covenant and steadfast love with you, as he swore to your ancestors.
13He will love you, 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 offspring of your cattle and your flocks, in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
14You will be blessed above all peoples. None of your men or women will be childless, and none of your livestock will be without offspring.
15The LORD will protect you from all sickness, and he will not afflict you with the terrible diseases of Egypt that you know so well. He will inflict them instead on all who hate you.
16You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God hands over to you. Do not look on them with pity, and do not serve their gods — that would be a snare to you.
17You may think to yourselves, 'These nations are stronger than us. How can we drive them out?'
18Do not be afraid of them. Remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt —
19the great trials your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, 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.
20Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left and those who hide from you have perished.
21Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God is among you — a great and awesome God.
22The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You will not be able to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.
23But the LORD your God will hand them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
24He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under the sky. No one will be able to stand against you; you will destroy them all.
25You must burn the carved images of their gods. Do not covet the silver and gold on them or take it for yourselves — or it will be a trap for you, because it is detestable to the LORD your God.
26Do not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction along with it. Utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.