1. The Lord your God will bring you to the land you’re about to enter and take possession of. He will force many nations out of your way: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations larger and more powerful than you.
2. When the Lord your God gives them to you and you defeat them, destroy every one of them because they have been claimed by the Lord. Don’t make any treaties with them or show them any mercy.
3. Never marry any of them. Never let your daughters marry their sons or your sons marry their daughters.
4. These people will turn your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the Lord will get very angry with you and will quickly destroy you.
5. But this is what you must do to these people: Tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols.
6. You are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. He chose you to be his own special possession out of all the nations on earth.
7. The Lord set his heart on you and chose you, even though you didn’t outnumber all the other people. You were the smallest of all nations.
8. You were chosen because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors. So he used his mighty hand to bring you out. He freed you from slavery under Pharaoh (the king of Egypt).
9. Keep in mind that the Lord your God is ⌊the only⌋ God. He is a faithful God, who keeps his promise and is merciful to thousands of generations of those who love him and obey his commands.
10. But he sends destruction to pay back everyone who hates him. He never takes long to pay back anyone who hates him.
11. So obey the commands, laws, and rules I’m giving you today.