Deuteronomy 7:1-5 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Deuteronomy 7. The native races of Canaan are to be exterminated and everything connected with their religion destroyed, lest Israel be seduced by them to idolatry. For the list of nations, see Genesis 15:19-21 * and Exodus 3:8 *; see also Deuteronomy 1:4.

Deuteronomy 7:2. utterly destroy: Deuteronomy 2:34 *.

Deuteronomy 7:4. me: render Yahweh (same Heb. consonants). Moses is the speaker.

Deuteronomy 7:5. pillars (pp. 98f.): lofty altars, obelisks, used in heathen, perhaps sun-worship. Asherim: p. 100, 1 Kings 15:13 *. (A.V. groves; so Welsh, following LXX, Vulg.), representations in wood of the old Semitic goddess Ashera, mentioned (Ashirta) in the Tell el-Amarna tablets (p. 55). That pillars and Asherim are so often mentioned together supports the theory that the first were such altars as were used in sacrificing to the second.

Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 7:1

Deuteronomy 7:1-5

1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images,a and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.