John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 7:2

"and when Jehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them;" — Deuteronomy 7:2 (ASV)

You shall smite them and utterly destroy them. Those who think that there was cruelty in this command usurp too much authority concerning Him who is the judge of all. The objection is specious that the people of God were unreasonably filled with inhumanity, so that, advancing with murderous atrocity, they should spare neither sex nor age.

But we must first remember what we will see later—that is, when God had destined the land for His people, He was free to utterly destroy the former inhabitants, so that its possession might be free for them. We must then go further and say that He desired the just demonstration of His vengeance to appear upon these nations. Four hundred years before, He had justly punished their many sins, yet He had suspended His sentence and patiently borne with them, if perhaps they might repent.

That sentence³⁰³ is well known: “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16). After God had shown His mercy for four centuries, and this clemency had increased both their audacity and madness, so that they had not ceased to provoke His wrath, surely it was no act of cruelty to compensate for the delay by the grievousness of the punishment.

And from this appears the foul and detestable perversity of the human intellect. We are indignant if He does not smile at once; if He delays punishment, our zeal accuses Him of slackness and lack of energy; yet, when He comes forth as the avenger of guilt, we either call Him cruel or at least complain of His severity. Yet His justice will always absolve Him, and our slander and false accusations will recoil upon our own heads.

He commanded seven nations to be utterly destroyed—that is to say, after they had added sin to sin for 400 years, so that their accumulation was immense, and experience had taught that they were obstinate and incurable. Therefore, it will be said elsewhere that the land “spewed them out,” (Leviticus 18:28), as if it had eased itself when burdened by their filthiness. If impiety is intolerable to the lifeless element, why should we wonder that God, in His character of Judge, exercised extreme severity?

But if God’s wrath was just, He might surely choose whatever ministers and executioners of it He pleased. And when He had given this commission to His people, it was not unreasonable that He should forbid them to pity those whom He had appointed for destruction.

For what can be more preposterous than for men to compete with God in clemency, and when it pleases the Master to be severe, for the servants to claim for themselves the right of showing mercy? Therefore, God often reproves the Israelites for being improperly merciful. And so it came to pass that the people, whom they should have destroyed, became as thorns and briars to prick them (Joshua 23:13, and throughout the book of Judges).

Away, then, with all rashness, by which we would presumptuously restrict God’s power to the puny measure of our reason. Rather, let us learn reverently to regard those works of His whose cause is concealed from us, than wantonly criticize them. Especially when He declares to us the just reasons for His vengeance, let us learn to submit to His decrees with the humility and modesty that is fitting for us, rather than to oppose them in vain and, indeed, to our own confusion.

³⁰³ “On sait ce qui fur dit a Abraham,” etc. — ,” etc. — Fr..