A Chosen People
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"When the 1LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, 2the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations 3more numerous and mightier than yourselves,
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4and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must 5devote them to complete destruction.a6You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
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7You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
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for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. 8Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you 9quickly.
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But thus shall you deal with them: 10you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their 11pillars and chop down their 12Asherim and 13burn their carved images with fire.
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"For 14you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be 15a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
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It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
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but 16it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping 17the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
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Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, 18the faithful God 19who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
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and 20repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. 21He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
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22You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
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23"And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you 24the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.
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He will 25love you, bless you, and multiply you. 26He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
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You shall be blessed above all peoples. 27There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
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And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil 28diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.
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And 29you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you. 30Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be 31a snare to you.
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"If you say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?'
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32you shall not be afraid of them but you shall 33remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,
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the great trials that your eyes saw, 34the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
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Moreover, 35the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.
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You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is 36in your midst, 37a great and awesome God.
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38The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,b lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.
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39But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.
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And 40he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall 41make their name perish from under heaven. 42No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)