Deuteronomy 7:1-2

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, ¹  Girgashites, ²  Amorites, ³  Canaanites, ⁴  Perizzites, ⁵  Hivites, ⁶  and Jebusites, ⁷  seven ⁸  nations more numerous and powerful than you – 7:2 and he ⁹  delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate ¹⁰  them. Make no treaty ¹¹  with them and show them no mercy!

Deuteronomy 7:16

Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism

7:16 You must destroy ¹²  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ¹³  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 7:23-24

7:23 The Lord your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic ¹⁴  until they are destroyed. 7:24 He will hand over their kings to you and you will erase their very names from memory. ¹⁵  Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them.

Exodus 23:29-31

23:29 I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals ¹⁶  multiply against you. 23:30 Little by little ¹⁷  I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land. 23:31 I will set ¹⁸  your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, ¹⁹  for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

Isaiah 41:10-16

41:10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!

Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! ²⁰ 

I strengthen you –

yes, I help you –

yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand! ²¹ 

41:11 Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated;

your adversaries ²²  will be reduced to nothing ²³  and perish.

41:12 When you will look for your opponents, ²⁴  you will not find them;

your enemies ²⁵  will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

41:13 For I am the Lord your God,

the one who takes hold of your right hand,

who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ²⁶ 

men of ²⁷  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ²⁸  the Holy One of Israel. ²⁹ 

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ³⁰  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ³¹ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ³² 

41:16 You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away;

the wind will scatter them.

You will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

Romans 8:31

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

[7:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.

[7:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizes the statement. The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here. Cf. ASV “shalt (must NRSV) utterly destroy them”; CEV “must destroy them without mercy.”

[7:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “covenant” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “alliance.”

[7:16]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[7:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he will confuse them (with) great confusion.” The verb used here means “shake, stir up” (see Ruth 1:19; 1 Sam 4:5; 1 Kgs 1:45; Ps 55:2); the accompanying cognate noun refers to confusion, unrest, havoc, or panic (1 Sam 5:9, 11; 14:20; 2 Chr 15:5; Prov 15:16; Isa 22:5; Ezek 7:7; 22:5; Amos 3:9; Zech 14:13).

[7:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “you will destroy their name from under heaven” (cf. KJV); NRSV “blot out their name from under heaven.”

[23:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the beast of the field.”

[23:30]  ¹⁷ tn The repetition expresses an exceptional or super-fine quality (see GKC 396 §123.e).

[23:31]  ¹⁸ tn The form is a perfect tense with vav consecutive.

[23:31]  ¹⁹ tn In the Hebrew Bible “the River” usually refers to the Euphrates (cf. NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT). There is some thought that it refers to a river Nahr el Kebir between Lebanon and Syria. See further W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:447; and G. W. Buchanan, The Consequences of the Covenant (NovTSup), 91-100.

[41:10]  ²⁰ tn According to BDB (1043 s.v. שָׁעָה), the verb תִּשְׁתָּע (tishta’) in the second line of the poetic couplet is a Hitpael form from the root שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “gaze,” with metathesis of the stem prefix and the first root letter). Taking the Hitpael as iterative, one may then translate “do not anxiously look about.” However, the alleged Hitpael form of שָׁעָה (sha’ah) only occurs here and in verse 23. HALOT 1671 s.v. שׁתע proposes that the verb is instead a Qal form from the root שׁתע (“fear”) which is attested in cognate Semitic languages, including Ugaritic (discovered after the publishing of BDB), suggests the existence of this root. The poetic structure of v. 10 also supports the proposal, for the form in question is in synonymous parallelism to יָרֵא (yare’, “fear”).

[41:10]  ²¹ tn The “right hand” is a symbol of the Lord’s power to deliver (Exod 15:6, 12) and protect (Ps 63:9 HT [63:8 ET]). Here צֶדֶק (tsedeq) has its well-attested nuance of “vindicated righteousness,” i.e., “victory, deliverance” (see 45:8; 51:5, and BDB 841-42 s.v.).

[41:11]  ²² tn Heb “the men of your strife”; NASB “those who contend with you.”

[41:11]  ²³ tn Heb “like nothing”; NAB “come to nought.”

[41:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the men of your struggle”; NASB “those who quarrel with you.”

[41:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the men of your battle”; NAB “who do battle with you.”

[41:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ²⁷ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ²⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[41:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ³² sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.