Deuteronomy 7

The discourse returns to the theme of Deu 6:10 ff., Israel’s temptations in the promised land. He is to make no contract, nor show friendliness, nor intermarry with its peoples lest he be drawn to idolatry (1–4), but is to destroy their altars and other religious symbols (5). For Israel is holy and peculiar to Jehovah, who hath chosen him because He loved him and redeemed him in order to keep His oath to his fathers (6–8). He is faithful to His own to a thousand generations, but requites His haters by destroying them; Israel must therefore keep His laws (9–11). If so, Jehovah will keep His covenant with the people, securing the fertility of themselves, their soil and their cattle, and turning disease from them upon their enemies (12–15). These Israel must consume ruthlessly, for their gods will be a snare; and if Israel is afraid of them he must remember that what his God has already done to Pharaoh and Egypt He will do to them, for He is in the midst of Israel a great God and terrible (16–21).

He will destroy them gradually (for His people’s sake), but utterly (22–24). The chapter closes on its keynote: Israel must destroy the images of the gods of these peoples, not coveting even the silver and the gold upon these, which must be an abomination to Israel (25–26).—Apart from certain editorial additions (see the notes), there is no reason to doubt the substantial integrity of the chapter; save with these additions—Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (except last clause), 12a—it maintains the Sg. address.

Deuteronomy 7:1

1. shall bring thee into, etc.] See on Deuteronomy 6:10. shall cast out, etc.] strip, or clear, off; Deuteronomy 7:22, 2 Kings 16:6 : the only applications of this verb to the extirpation of human beings; in Deuteronomy 19:5 intrans. of the slipping of an axe-head from the heft, Deuteronomy 28:40 the dropping of olives. J E of drawing off sandals, Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15. The list of seven nations which follows is of a kind frequent in JE, D (Deuteronomy 20:17) and deuteronomic passages in other books; ‘in many cases probably—Joshua 24:11 is one that is very clear—introduced by the compiler’ (Dri.), but always with a rhetorical purpose. The order and even the contents of these lists vary; for details see Driver on this verse, and on Exodus 3:8. Hittite] Egyptian and Assyrian monuments record a Ḥ ?ittite power in N. Syria with a centre at Ḳ ?adesh on the Orontes. Judges 1:26; Judges 3:23, Joshua 11:3 (in these last two read Ḥ ?ittite for Ḥ ?ivite) bring the name as far as the S. end of Mt Hermon. P mentions people of the same or a similar name in S. Palestine as owning the land about Ḥ ?ebron (Genesis 23:3; Genesis 23:10), and gives Esau wives of the daughters of Ḥ ?eth (Genesis 26:4; Genesis 27:46). Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:3, cp.

Ezekiel 16:45) calls the mother of Jerusalem a Ḥ ?ittite. On these grounds (and others) the existence of at least Ḥ ?ittite colonies or suzerainties in S. Palestine has been maintained. But in P Ḥ ?ittite may be used in the same general sense as Amorite in E and D and Canaanite in J; cp. Joshua 1:4 (deuteronomic) all the land of the Ḥ ?. = all Syria, which the Assyrians also mean by ‘the land of the Khatti’; and P’s Ḥ ?ittites at Hebron are called Amorites by E, Joshua 10:5; while Ezekiel, too, may have no ethnological distinction in mind, but may mean only to emphasise the inborn heathenism of Jerusalem. The question is still uncertain and of no importance for the understanding of a rhetorical list like this.

For details see the writer’s Jerus. II. 16–18. Girgashite] in but a few of the lists; here, Joshua 3:10; Joshua 24:11; Genesis 15:21. Genesis 10:16 (J) puts them under the political supremacy of Canaan (begotten by C.) or Phoenicia. Their territory is unknown. The name seems onomatopoetic like Zamzummim (Deuteronomy 2:20); cp. Arab, ‘garas,’ to make a low sound or speak softly. Amorite … Canaanite] See on Deuteronomy 1:7. Perizzite] in all but two or three of the lists. J mentions this people, along with the Canaanite, as Israel’s predecessors (Genesis 13:7; Genesis 34:30; Judges 1:4-5), and their land as in the centre of the range of W. Palestine (Joshua 17:15). The name has been derived, but not certainly, from perazah, ‘open region’ or ‘region of unwalled towns,’ perazi, ‘the inhabitant of such’ (Deuteronomy 3:5). Hivite] in all the lists. In J they are subject to Phoenicia (Canaan, Genesis 10:17) and the Gibeonites are called Ḥ ?ivites (Joshua 9:7; cp. the deuteronomic Deuteronomy 11:19). In 2 Samuel 24:7 their cities are coupled with those of the Canaanites as now Israel’s. The Heb. Ḥ ?iwwi seems connected with ḥ ?awwah, tent-village. Jebusite] in all the lists save one; according to J and other sources the inhabitants of Jerusalem and its land till their conquest by David (Joshua 15:63; Judges 1:21; Judges 19:11; 2 Samuel 5:6; 2 Samuel 5:8); cf. P’s the shoulder of the Jebusite, that is Jerusalem, Joshua 18:16; Joshua 18:28. See the writer’s Jerus. i. 226 f., ii. 18, 28.

Deuteronomy 7:2

2. deliver them up before] See on Deuteronomy 1:8. thou shall utterly destroy them] put to the ban, herem. See on Deuteronomy 2:34. make no covenant with them] no treaty or alliance; so in JE, Exodus 23:32; Exodus 34:12; cp. Joshua 9:6, 1 Samuel 11:1 ff. (instances of such).

Deuteronomy 7:3

3. neither … make marriages with them] In the narratives in Genesis and Judges marriages are regarded as best when between members of the same family or tribe (Genesis 28:2; Genesis 28:8 f.) and as unfortunate when the wives are foreign (Genesis 26:34 f., Genesis 27:46; Judges 14:3). But no law against marriage with foreigners is either assumed or implied. On the contrary, Moses (Exodus 2:21), David (2 Samuel 3:3), Solomon (1 Kings 11:1), Ahab (1 Kings 16:31), all marry foreigners, and there are other instances (Bath-sheba and Uriah, etc.). The deuteronomic veto, therefore, may be assumed to be the earliest law against such marriages (Exodus 34:16 is editorial) and to have become necessary by the experience of their evil consequences, conducive to idolatry (Judges 3:5 f., deuteronomic). At the same time D allows marriage with a foreign woman taken in war (Deuteronomy 21:10). That the law was not kept is seen from the Book of Ezra.

Deuteronomy 7:4

4. turn away thy son from following me] Expressed differently in Exodus 34:16 b but to the same effect, that the influence of the foreign wife on her Israelite husband will be to lead him into idolatry. From after me (lit.): as the speaker is Moses, the me has been taken to be due to abbreviation of the divine name, and Jehovah is read; but in that case we should have had Jehovah thy God. Therefore retain me and take this as an instance, occurring again in Deuteronomy 17:3, Deuteronomy 28:20, Deuteronomy 29:5 (4), and frequent in the discourses of the prophets, of the merging of the speaker’s personality in that of the Deity, for whom he speaks. against you] Transition for the moment to the Pl. (confirmed by Sam. and LXX). It is impossible to say whether this is original or an editorial addition. quickly] Deuteronomy 4:26.

Deuteronomy 7:5

5. The change to the Pl., together with the fact that the v. does not direct the destruction of the persons of the heathen (which would have been relevant to the preceding), but only of their altars, etc., marks this verse as a quotation or later insertion. Deuteronomy 7:6 follows on 4. So Steuern., Berth. Cp. the editorial passages Exodus 23:24 b, Exodus 34:13. The original of all three passages may be the deuteronomic law, Deuteronomy 12:3. pillars … Asherim] See on Deuteronomy 16:21 f.

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

6–11. The reasons for the previous commands to destroy the peoples of the land, and to abstain from traffic with them, leading as this would to participation in their worship of other gods. Israel are for Jehovah alone: to this end He loved, chose, and redeemed them. This is one of the many cases in Deut. in which the principles or ideas offered for certain practices or acts of conduct commanded to Israel are of a far higher standard than these practices themselves, and therefore have endured as the essentials of religion when the practices are either no longer prescribed or actually forbidden (as in Christianity). The passage, which might appear to be founded on Exodus 19:5 f., is not certainly so; for Exodus 19:5 f. (on which see the note) has probably been expanded. The address changes to the Pl. in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, which are probably a later insertion: see below.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

7, 8. Change to the Pl. address. Because of this and because the choice of Israel by Jehovah is not mentioned in other Pl. passages, and also because these verses are not necessary to the connection, they are probably a later editorial insertion—or at least a quotation.

Deuteronomy 7:8

8. loveth you] With Israel’s love to God (see on Deuteronomy 6:5) God’s love to Israel is equally characteristic of D and not found elsewhere in Hexateuch; first expressed and very fully in Hosea 1-3 and Hosea 11:1-4. In Deut. of God’s love to the fathers of the nation, Deuteronomy 4:37, Deuteronomy 10:15, both Sg.; to the nation, Deuteronomy 7:8 Pl. (editorial), Deuteronomy 7:13, Deuteronomy 23:5 Sg.; to the stranger, Deuteronomy 10:18 Sg. the oath which he sware] See Deuteronomy 9:5. mighty hand] See on Deuteronomy 3:24. redeemed you] Heb. thee, and the Sg. is confirmed by Sam. and most MSS of LXX. This Sg. clause follows, not only conveniently upon Deuteronomy 7:6, the last clause in Sg., but very appropriately because of its redeemed and the peculiar people of that clause. redeemed] The ordinary term for ransoming beast or man from slavery or death (see on Exodus 13:13), is used of the redemption of Israel from Egypt in D here, Deuteronomy 13:5, Deuteronomy 15:15, Deuteronomy 21:8, Deuteronomy 24:8, all with the Sg., and in Deuteronomy 9:26 in a Pl. context; and so nowhere else in the Hexateuch.

Deuteronomy 7:9-10

9, 10. A free paraphrase of the Second Commandment.

Deuteronomy 7:10

10. to their face] i.e. in their own persons; inserted lest the sinner might flatter himself that the punishment of his sin would be deferred to a later generation (Deuteronomy 7:11). he will not be slack] Rather, he will not delay (it).

Deuteronomy 7:11

11. the commandment, and the statutes, and the judgements] See on Deuteronomy 6:1. Sam. again omits and before statutes.

Deuteronomy 7:12

12. And it shall come to pass] Cp. Deuteronomy 6:10. because] better than A.V. if; Heb. means in consequence of, or as a reward for. ye hearken … and do them] Another Pl. clause and superfluous. The next clause resuming the Sg. follows suitably Deuteronomy 7:11. Jehovah thy God shall keep with thee the covenant, etc.] Expansion of Deu 7:9, q.v.

Deuteronomy 7:13

13. love … bless … and multiply thee] Cp. Genesis 22:17 (E?), Genesis 26:24 (J), bless and multiply; note the characteristic addition love by D. The blessings which follow are material; similarly but varied in Deuteronomy 28:4; Deuteronomy 28:11; Deuteronomy 28:18; Deuteronomy 28:51, Deuteronomy 30:9, all Sg. Note the interesting differences in Hosea’s similar lists: bread, water, wool, flax, oil, drink, corn, wine, oil (Hosea 2:5; Hosea 2:8 f., Hosea 2:15; Hosea 2:22). Hosea, writing for the N. kingdom, gives flax, which D omits; all the rest are characteristic of Judah. Hosea’s treatment of the subject is more spiritual; he gives the moral blessings of the relation of Jehovah and Israel in greater, the material in less, detail than D. fruit of thy body] womb, as in A.V.; Genesis 30:2 (E). corn … wine … oil] Deuteronomy 11:14, Deuteronomy 12:17, Deuteronomy 14:23, Deuteronomy 28:51. The terms used denote these products in a less manufactured slate. Wine is tîrôsh not yain, corn dagan not ḥ ?iṭ ?ṭ ?im, oil yiṣ ?har not shemen. Tîrôsh, though not entirely unfermented or harmless (Hosea 4:11), was nevertheless a much fresher extract of the grape than yain, it is new wine or must; dagan is corn which has been threshed out (Numbers 18:27); and yiṣ ?har is fresh oil (abb. from Driver in loco and on pp. xx f. of his 3rd ed.). the increase of thy kine] Deuteronomy 28:4; Deuteronomy 28:18; Deuteronomy 28:51 : what drops from or is cast by, an animal; Exodus 13:12 (J) that cometh of a beast. Nowhere else. Kine, rather cattle, the noun is masc. the young of thy flock] Lit. the ‘Ashtoreths. ‘A phrase like this, which has descended from religion into ordinary life, and is preserved among the monotheistic Hebrews, is very old evidence for the association of Astarte with the sheep.’ (W. R. Smith, Rel. of the Semites, 458.) in the land, etc.] See Deuteronomy 6:10 : after sware, Sam. and LXX read Jehovah.

Deuteronomy 7:14

14. not … barren] Exodus 23:26 (edit.); cp. above on Deuteronomy 7:13.

Deuteronomy 7:15

15. take away … all sickness] Exodus 23:25 (edit.). evil diseases of Egypt] In Exodus 15:26 (edit.) the sicknesses (another word) refers to the special plagues brought on the Egyptians by Jehovah for Israel’s sake. Here the reference is rather to the natural ailments of men of which in antiquity Egypt was notoriously the source: elephantiasis, ‘Aegypti peculiare malum’ (Pliny, H.N. xxvi. 1, 5), ophthalmia, dysentery, but especially the bubonic plague (Hecataeus of Abdera in Diod. Sic. xl. 3). See the present writer’s Hist. Geog. of the Holy Land, 157 f., 670; and cp. below note on Deuteronomy 28:27. which thou knowest] hast had experience of, see on Deuteronomy 7:9.

Deuteronomy 7:16

16. consume] Lit. eat up, a common figure, JE, Numbers 22:4. shall deliver] See on Deuteronomy 7:2. The rest of the v. Steuern. takes as an addition, because the theme of Deu 7:12-16 is what Jehovah does; and this, a warning for Israel, breaks the course of the thought. But this is to impute too fine a logic to such a discursive writer. thine eye shall not pity them] Deuteronomy 13:8, Deuteronomy 19:13; Deuteronomy 19:21, Deuteronomy 25:12, all Sg.; elsewhere in Hex. only in the edit. passage, Genesis 45:20, and with a different object, but common in Ezek., of God’s eye on the people, and also found in Jer. and other post-deuteronomic writings. Cp. Deuteronomy 7:2, thou shalt not pity them, with another vb. neither shalt thou serve their gods … snare unto thee] Similarly in edit. Exodus 23:33; Exodus 34:12. See note on former.

Deuteronomy 7:17

17. say in thine heart] say to thyself, or think, or imagine; but with the force of really think, Deuteronomy 9:4, Deuteronomy 18:21.

Deuteronomy 7:18

18. afraid of them] So simply, Deuteronomy 20:1; for the longer characteristic phrases see on Deuteronomy 1:21. what Jehovah thy God did] Deuteronomy 4:34, Deuteronomy 6:21 f.

Deuteronomy 7:19

19. temptations … signs … wonders] See on Deuteronomy 4:34. which thine eyes saw] Deuteronomy 4:9. mighty hand, and … stretched out arm] See on Deuteronomy 4:34.

Deuteronomy 7:20

20. And also the hornets will Jehovah … send, etc.] E twice, Exodus 23:28, Joshua 24:12. ‘By also D indicates that he will have the hornets understood not as the only weapon of God, but as an example of His weapons; by the rest of the verse he makes it sufficiently clear that he takes hornets in the proper sense of the word, in so far as they penetrate into holes and corners’ (Dillmann).

Deuteronomy 7:21

21. Thou shalt not be affrighted] This, combined with the verb be afraid (Deuteronomy 7:18), is found in Pl. passages. in the midst of thee] Deuteronomy 6:15. great God and … terrible] Cp. Deuteronomy 10:17, Deuteronomy 28:58, the same epithets of the wilderness Deuteronomy 1:19, Deuteronomy 8:15, and of Jehovah’s deeds Deuteronomy 10:21. Terrible, in E, Genesis 28:17 of the presence of God; nowhere else before D, for Exodus 34:10 is editorial, but very frequent in post-deuteronomic writings.

Deuteronomy 7:22

22. cast out] See on Deuteronomy 7:1. little and little] So, with the same reason attached, E, Exodus 23:29-30, on which see the note. This is a good instance of D’s redaction, and more fluent expression, of earlier statements. That D should repeat the fact is strange. Though in harmony with and explanatory of the actual delay in Israel’s extermination of the peoples of the land, as recorded in the older documents (Joshua 13:13; Joshua 15:63; Joshua 16:10; Joshua 17:11-18; Judges 1:19; Judges 1:21 ff., Judges 2:20 to Judges 3:4; most probably all J), it is against the conception conveyed by the deuteronomic sections of Joshua, that Israel’s conquest of the peoples was rapid and complete (Joshua 10:28-43; Joshua 11:16-23; Joshua 21:43-45, etc.). This, however, is no reason for supposing the verse to be an intrusion as Steuern. does; in any case it is deuteronomic. lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee] Field, here in its earlier sense of uncultivated territory; beasts of the field are therefore wild beasts. That this danger was real and great in partly depopulated lands is illustrated in 2 Kings 17:24 f. How constant the war of man against wild animals was in ancient Palestine may be felt from the promise of their being tamed as one of the elements of the Messianic age, Isaiah 11:6-9. See the present writer’s Isaiah i.–xxxix. 189 f.

Deuteronomy 7:23

23. deliver them up] See on Deuteronomy 7:2. discomfit] an onomatopoetic word implying the confusion, turmoil, and panic of defeat, especially under Divine judgement.

Deuteronomy 7:24

24. make their name to perish, etc.] Cp blot out, Deuteronomy 9:14, Deuteronomy 25:19, Deuteronomy 29:20. stand before thee] Lit. keep himself standing to thy face, hold his post in face of thee: only here, Deuteronomy 9:2 Sg., Deuteronomy 11:25 Pl., in this sense.

Deuteronomy 7:25

25. The graven images … burn with fire] Deuteronomy 7:5. Curiously in the Pl., as there is an otherwise Sg. context (the text is confirmed by Sam. and LXX). Steuern marks the verse as secondary, but unnecessarily; the isolated Pl. may be due to a scribe whose eye or ear was impressed with Deuteronomy 7:5 (so, too, Bertholet). Burn, the body of the image therefore was of wood, but plated or ornamented with metal (yet cp. Exodus 32:20). Hence further— thou shalt not covet the silver or the gold that is on them] Cp. Joshua 7:1; Joshua 7:21, Achan’s trespass in the devoted thing. The former of these is editorial; the latter, with Achan’s confession that he had coveted 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold, belongs to JE. snared] See on Deuteronomy 7:16. an abomination] The Heb. tô‘ebah is that which is ritually unlawful, and therefore unclean and abhorrent, in respect to some religious system. Thus it is used of Israel’s own sacrifices as unlawful in Egypt, which the Egyptians would stone Israel for performing there, Exodus 8:26, J (see note on that verse). Similarly it is frequently used in D) (either alone or followed by Jehovah) of the rites and religious practices of heathen nations as unlawful and unclean for Israel, Deuteronomy 12:31, Deuteronomy 13:14 (the effort to seduce to those rites), Deuteronomy 17:4, Deuteronomy 18:9, Deuteronomy 20:18; and by metonymy of the things used in those rites, Deuteronomy 7:25-26, Deuteronomy 27:15 (images, cp. Deuteronomy 32:16 parallel to strange gods); of a blemished sacrifice, Deuteronomy 17:1, and unclean food, Deuteronomy 14:3; and also of persons participating in such rites, Deuteronomy 18:12, Deuteronomy 23:18, or following other unlawful courses, Deuteronomy 22:5 (wearing the garments of the other sex), Deuteronomy 25:16 (using unjust weights); and finally, Deuteronomy 24:4, of re-marriage with one’s divorced wife after she has been married to another. All these 16 instances occur in Sg. passages with two exceptions, Deuteronomy 20:18, a Pl. clause in a Sg. context, and Deuteronomy 32:16 a line in the Song (the verb, to abhor, Deuteronomy 7:26, Deuteronomy 23:7). No such use of the noun with reference to Israel occurs in JE, but-in Leviticus 17-26, the Holiness-Code, it is used several times of the sin of unchastity. In Proverbs Jehovah’s abomination has an ethical force.

Deuteronomy 7:26

26. a devoted thing] ḥ ?erem, see on Deuteronomy 2:34; cp. Deuteronomy 13:17 (18). Persons using or touching anything that was ḥ ?erem or under the ban, themselves became ḥ ?erem, cp. Joshua 6:18; Joshua 7:12. utterly detest … utterly abhor] The latter verb is that of the noun tô‘ebah, abomination, see Deuteronomy 7:25; the former verb, shiḳ ?ḳ ?eṣ ?, with its noun, is also used with respect to what is ritually forbidden or unclean, but chiefly in P, e.g. Leviticus 11:10-13; Leviticus 11:20; Leviticus 11:23; Leviticus 11:41 f.