Deuteronomy 7:1-10

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

Here is, I. A very strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those that are taken into communion with God must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. These things they are charged about for the preventing of this snare now before them. 1. They must show them no mercy, Deut. 7:1, 2. Bloody work is here appointed them, and yet it is God's work, and good work, and in its time and place needful, acceptable, and honourable. (1.) God here... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it ,.... The land of Canaan they were just now going into to take possession of; their introduction into which is here, as in many other places, ascribed not to themselves, or their leaders, but to the Lord as their covenant God: and hath cast out many nations before thee ; even all that were in it, the seven following: the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:2

And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee ,.... Into their hands: thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them ; men, women, and children; which was ordered not merely to make way and room for the people of Israel to inherit their land, but as a punishment for capital crimes they had been guilty of, such as idolatry, incest, murder, &c.; wherefore though they were reprieved for a while for Israel's sake, till their time was come to possess the land, they were at... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:3

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them ,.... Unless they became proselytes, as Rahab, who was married by Salmon, and so those of other nations, as Ruth the Moabitess, and so any captive taken in war; otherwise it was not lawful, bad consequences have followed upon it, which it is the design of this law to prevent; that is, being snared and drawn aside into idolatry, which was the case of Solomon: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:4

For they will turn away thy son from following me ,.... From the pure worship of God, his word, statutes, and ordinances: that they may serve other gods ; worship their idols; that is, the daughters of Heathens, married to the sons of Israelites, would entice them from the worship of the true God to idolatry; so the Targum of Jonathan; as Solomon's wives drew him aside: or "he will turn away thy son" F4 יסיר "faciet recedere": Pagninus, Montanus; so Junius and Tremellius, Piscator,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:5

But thus shall ye deal with them ,.... The inhabitants of the land of Canaan: ye shall destroy their altars ; on which they sacrificed to their idols: and break down their images ; of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them: and cut down their groves ; sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:6

For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God ,.... Not sanctified in a spiritual sense, or having principles of grace and holiness in them, from whence holy actions sprang, at least not all of them; but they were separated from all other people in the world to the pure worship and service of God in an external manner, and therefore were to avoid all idolatry, and every appearance of it: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:7

The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you ,.... He had done both, and the one as the effect and evidence of the other; he loved them, and therefore he chose them; but neither of them: because ye were more in number than any people ; not for the quantity of them, nor even for the quality of them: for ye were the fewest of all people ; fewer than the Egyptians, from whence they came, and than the Canaanites they were going to drive out and inherit their land, Deuteronomy... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:8

But because the Lord loved you ,.... With an unmerited love; he loved them, because he loved them; that is, because he would love them; his love was not owing to any goodness in them, or done by them, or any love in them to him, but to his own good will and pleasure: and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers ; the promise he had made, confirmed by an oath: hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand ; out of the land of Egypt: and redeemed you... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:9

The only true and living God, and not the idols of the Gentiles, who are false and lifeless ones, and therefore not the proper objects of adoration: the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy ; as appeared by fulfilling the promise made to their fathers, in bringing them out of Egypt, and now them to the borders of the land of Canaan given them for an inheritance: with them that love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations ; see Exodus 20:6 which are not the... read more

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