Deuteronomy 7:2 NIV

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 7:2

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

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 7:2

Thou shalt smite them, etc. - 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,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 7:2

Verse 2 2.Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Those who think that there was cruelty in this command, usurp too great authority in respect to Him who is the judge of all. The objection is specious that the people of God were unreasonably imbued with inhumanity, so that, advancing with murderous atrocity, they should spare neither sex nor age. But we must first remember what we shall see hereafter, i.e., that when God had destined the land for His people, He was at liberty utterly to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-4

EXPOSITION ENTIRE SEPARATION FROM IDOLATROUS NATIONS ENJOINED . The Israelites were about to enter on a country occupied by idolaters, and they are commanded not to spare them or to allow them to continue in their proximity, or to have any friendly relations with them (cf. Le 27:28). The Lord would cast out these nations, and deliver them, though greater and mightier than they, into their hands; and they were to smite them and place them under the ban; they were to make... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-5

Extermination with a moral purpose. When the Israelites were to cross into Canaan, they were directed to exterminate the seven nations they would find there. This is their commission. The invasion is to be conducted upon this principle. And here let us notice— I. NATIONS , LIKE INDIVIDUALS , MAY BECOME INCORRIGIBLE . There can be no doubt that sin tends to a final and incorrigible condition if the Divine mercy is not accepted and allowed to exercise its undermining power.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-6

Judgment without mercy. This decree is to be viewed— I. AS A JUST JUDGMENT ON PEOPLES WHOSE INIQUITIES CRIED FOR VENGEANCE . The doomed nations had been long borne with ( Genesis 15:16 ). Their iniquities were of a kind and degree of enormity which imperatively called for a Divine interposition (Le 18:27, 28; Deuteronomy 9:4 ). This was the true ground of God's dealings with them, and furnishes a sufficient answer to all cavils. The destruction of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

A holy people's policy of self-preservation. We have in this paragraph a glance onward to the time when Israel's march through the wilderness would be completed, and when the people to whom God had given the land should be confronted with those who had it previously in possession. In our Homily on it let us observe— I. WE HAVE HERE POINTED OUT THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH ISRAEL WOULD TAKE POSSESSION OF THE LAND . 1. There was a great covenant promise... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

Israel's iconoclastic mission. Material idolatry is the great peril of humanity. To what corruption and misery such idolatry leads, we in Christianized England can scarcely conceive. What the history of our world would have been if that hotbed of Canaanite corruption had continued, it would be difficult to imagine. Many methods were open to God by which he might arrest that plague of vice; out of them all, his wisdom selected this , viz. to employ the Hebrews as his ministers of... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

See Deuteronomy 6:10 note.Deuteronomy 7:5Their groves - Render, their idols of wood: the reference is to the wooden trunk used as a representation of Ashtaroth; see Deuteronomy 7:13 and Exodus 34:13 note.Deuteronomy 7:7The fewest of all people - God chose for Himself Israel, when as yet but a single family, or rather a single person, Abraham; though there were already numerous nations and powerful kingdoms in the earth. Increase Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 10:22 had taken place because of the... read more

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

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 7:2

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 7:2

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-4

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-5

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-6

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 7:1-11

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