2. The Lord your God will hand these nations over to you. You will defeat them. You must destroy them completely. Do not make a peace treaty with them. Do not show them any mercy.
3. Do not marry any of them. Don’t let your daughters marry their sons. And don’t let your sons marry their daughters.
4. Those people will turn your children away from me. Your children will begin serving other gods. The Lord will be very angry with you. And he will quickly destroy you.
5. This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars. Smash their holy stone pillars. Cut down their Asherah idols and burn their idols in the fire.
6. You are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth. You are his very own.
7. The Lord did not care for you and choose you because there were many of you. You are the smallest nation of all.
8. But the Lord chose you because he loved you. And he kept his promise to your ancestors. So he brought you out of Egypt by his great power. He brought you back from the land of slavery. He bought you back from the power of the king of Egypt.