Deuteronomy 7:16

Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism

7:16 You must destroy ¹  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ²  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ³  Girgashites, ⁴  Amorites, ⁵  Canaanites, ⁶  Perizzites, ⁷  Hivites, ⁸  and Jebusites, ⁹  seven ¹⁰  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

Deuteronomy 14:1

The Holy and the Profane

14:1 You are children ¹¹  of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald ¹²  for the sake of the dead.

Deuteronomy 15:8-9

15:8 Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend ¹³  him whatever he needs. ¹⁴  15:9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude ¹⁵  be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite ¹⁶  and you do not lend ¹⁷  him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 15:2

15:2 This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; ¹⁹  he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, ²⁰  for it is to be recognized as “the Lord’s cancellation of debts.”

Deuteronomy 10:16

10:16 Therefore, cleanse ²¹  your heart and stop being so stubborn! ²² 

Deuteronomy 10:1

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ²³ 

Luke 9:54-55

9:54 Now when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume ²⁴  them?” ²⁵  9:55 But Jesus ²⁶  turned and rebuked them, ²⁷ 

John 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ²⁸  the synagogue, ²⁹  yet a time ³⁰  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ³¹ 

Romans 10:2

10:2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God, ³²  but their zeal is not in line with the truth. ³³ 

Galatians 4:17

4:17 They court you eagerly, ³⁴  but for no good purpose; ³⁵  they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly. ³⁶ 

[7:16]  ¹ tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”

[7:16]  ² tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[7:1]  ³ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

[7:1]  ⁴ sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ⁵ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ⁶ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

[7:1]  ⁷ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ⁹ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ¹⁰ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[14:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”

[14:1]  ¹² sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.

[15:8]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before both verbs. The translation indicates the emphasis with the words “be sure to” and “generously,” respectively.

[15:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “whatever his need that he needs for himself.” This redundant expression has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your eye.”

[15:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your needy brother.”

[15:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).

[15:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”

[15:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his neighbor,” used idiomatically to refer to another person.

[15:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his neighbor and his brother.” The words “his brother” may be a scribal gloss identifying “his neighbor” (on this idiom, see the preceding note) as a fellow Israelite (cf. v. 3). In this case the conjunction before “his brother” does not introduce a second category, but rather has the force of “that is.”

[10:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “circumcise the foreskin of” (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV). Reference to the Abrahamic covenant prompts Moses to recall the sign of that covenant, namely, physical circumcision (Gen 17:9-14). Just as that act signified total covenant obedience, so spiritual circumcision (cleansing of the heart) signifies more internally a commitment to be pliable and obedient to the will of God (cf. Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26).

[10:16]  ²² tn Heb “your neck do not harden again.” See note on the word “stubborn” in Deut 9:6.

[10:1]  ²³ tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

[9:54]  ²⁴ tn Or “destroy.”

[9:54]  ²⁵ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (A C D W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï it), read here “as also Elijah did,” making the allusion to 2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14 more explicit. The shorter reading has better and earlier support (Ì^45,75 א B L Ξ 579 700* 1241 pc lat sa). It is difficult to explain how the shorter reading could have arisen from the longer, especially since it is well represented early on. However, the longer reading looks to have been a marginal note originally, incorporated into the text of Luke by early scribes.

[9:55]  ²⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:55]  ²⁷ tc Many mss ([D] K Γ Θ Ë^1,13 [579] 700 2542 pm it) have at the end of the verse (with slight variations) “and he said, ‘You do not know what sort of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save [them].’” This variant is clearly secondary, as it gives some content to the rebuke. Further, it is difficult to explain how such rich material would have been omitted by the rest of the witnesses, including the earliest and best mss.

[16:2]  ²⁸ tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ²⁹ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ³¹ sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.

[10:2]  ³² tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”

[10:2]  ³³ tn Grk “in accord with knowledge.”

[4:17]  ³⁴ tn Or “They are zealous for you.”

[4:17]  ³⁵ tn Or “but not commendably” (BDAG 505 s.v. καλῶς 2).

[4:17]  ³⁶ tn Or “so that you would be zealous.”