Deu 7:1-3 | Clarke | e4.org | CHAPTER VII With the seven nations that God shall cast out , 1, they shall make no covenant , 2, nor form any matrimonial alliances , 3; lest they should be enticed into idolatry , 4. All monuments of idolatry to be destroyed , 5. The Israelites are to consider themselves a holy people , 6; and that the Lord had made them such, not for their merits, but for his own mercies , 7, 8. They shall therefore love him, and keep his commandments , 9-11. The great privileges of the obedient , 12-24. All idolatry to be avoided , 25, 26. NOTES ON CHAP. VII Verse 1. Seven nations greater and mightier than thou ] In several places of the Hebrew text, each of these seven nations is not enumerated, some one or other being left out, which the Septuagint in general supply. How these nations were distributed over the land of Canaan previously to the entering in of the Israelites, the reader may see in the note on "Jos 3:10" .

‏ Deuteronomy 7:1-3

CHAPTER VII

With the seven nations that God shall cast out, 1,

they shall make no covenant, 2,

nor form any matrimonial alliances, 3;

lest they should be enticed into idolatry, 4.

All monuments of idolatry to be destroyed, 5.

The Israelites are to consider themselves a holy people, 6;

and that the Lord had made them such, not for their merits, but for his own mercies, 7, 8.

They shall therefore love him, and keep his commandments, 9-11.

The great privileges of the obedient, 12-24.

All idolatry to be avoided, 25, 26.

NOTES ON CHAP. VII

Verse 1. Seven nations greater and mightier than thou] In several places of the Hebrew text, each of these seven nations is not enumerated, some one or other being left out, which the Septuagint in general supply. How these nations were distributed over the land of Canaan previously to the entering in of the Israelites, the reader may see in the note on "Jos 3:10".

Verse 2. Thou shalt smite them, &c.] These idolatrous nations were to be utterly destroyed, and all the others also which were contiguous to the boundaries of the promised land, provided they did not renounce their idolatry and receive the true faith: for if they did not, then no covenant was to be made with them on any secular or political consideration whatever; no mercy was to be shown to them, because the cup of their iniquity also was now full; and they must either embrace, heartily embrace, the true religion, or be cut off.

Verse 3. Neither shalt thou make marriages, &c.] The heart being naturally inclined to evil, there is more likelihood that the idolatrous wife should draw aside the believing husband, than that the believing husband should be able to bring over his idolatrous wife to the true faith.