1. “The Lord your God will lead you into the land that you are entering to take for your own. He will force out many nations for you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations greater and more powerful than you.
2. The Lord your God will put these nations under your power. And you will defeat them. You must destroy them completely. Don’t make an agreement with them or show them mercy.
3. Don’t marry any of them, and don’t let your sons or daughters marry any of the people from those other nations.
4. If you do, they will turn your children away from following me. Then your children will serve other gods, and the Lord will be very angry with you. He will quickly destroy you!
5. “This is what you must do to those nations: You must smash their altars and break their memorial stones into pieces. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their statues.
6. Do this because you are the Lord’S own people. From all the people on earth, the Lord your God chose you to be his special people—people who belong only to him.
7. Why did the Lord love and choose you? It was not because you are such a large nation. You had the fewest of all people!
8. But the Lord brought you out of Egypt with great power and made you free from slavery. He freed you from the control of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Lord did this because he loves you and he wanted to keep the promise he made to your ancestors.
9. “So remember that the Lord your God is the only God, and you can trust him! He keeps his agreement. He shows his love and kindness to all people who love him and obey his commands. He continues to show his love and kindness through a thousand generations,
10. but the Lord punishes people who hate him. He will destroy them. He will not be slow to punish those who hate him.
11. So you must be careful to obey the commands, laws, and rules that I give you today.
12. “If you listen to these laws, and if you are careful to obey them, the Lord your God will keep his agreement of love with you. He promised this to your ancestors.