John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 7

When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you go 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 has cast out many nations before you; even all that were in it, the seven following:

the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites; the Canaanites were a particular nation in the land of Canaan, which had their name from Canaan himself; the rest were called from different sons of his; see (Genesis 10:15–17), the country of the Gergesenes, the same with the Girgashites, continued its name until the times of Christ, (Matthew 8:28),

seven nations greater and mightier than you; more in number, and more robust in body, some being of a gigantic stature; there were ten of these nations in Abraham's time, three of them were since sunk or swallowed up among the rest, the Kenites, and Kenizzites, and the Rephaim; for instead of the Kadmonites the Hivites are here put, which seem to be the same.

And when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you
Into their hands:

you shall 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.

Wherefore though they were reprieved for a while for Israel's sake, till their time was come to possess the land, they were at length righteously punished; which observed, abates the seeming severity exercised upon them:

you shall make no covenant with them ;
to dwell in their cities and houses, and enjoy their lands and estates, on any condition whatever; and though they did make a league with the Gibeonites, that was obtained by fraud, they pretending not to be of the land of Canaan, but to come from a very distant country:

nor show mercy to them ;
by sparing their lives, bestowing any favours upon them, or giving them any help and assistance when in distress:

The Jews extend this to all other Heathen nations besides these seven; wherefore, if an Israelite, as Maimonides ^F26 says, should see a Gentile perishing, or plunged into a river, he may not take him out, nor administer medicine to a sick person.

Hence Juvenal ^F1 the poet upbraids them with their unkindness and incivility; and says that Moses delivered it as a Jewish law, in a secret volume of his, perhaps referring to this book of Deuteronomy, that the Jews might not direct a poor traveller in his way unless he was one of their religion, nor one thirsty to a fountain of water;

And which led Tacitus ^F2 , the Heathen historian, to make this remark upon them, that they entertained an hostile hatred against all other people.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Hilchot Abodath Cochabim, c. 10. sect. 1, 2.
• F1: "Non monstrare vias" Satyr 14.
• F2: Hist l. 5. c. 5.

Neither shall you 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:

your daughter you shall not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall
you take unto your son ;
for, according to the Targum of Jonathan, whoever marries with them, it is as if he married with their idols: and this law, according to the Jewish writers ^F3 , is binding with respect to other nations besides the seven; and whoever marries any Heathen, of whatsoever nation, is to be beaten.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: Maimon. Hilchot lssure Biah, c. 12. sect. 1.

For they will turn away your 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 your son" ^F4 ; meaning, as Jarchi observes, that the son of an Heathen, that marries the daughter of an Israelite, will turn away the son born of her to idolatry, called here the grandfather's son; though Aben Ezra says this respects the son mentioned in the preceding verse, that is, the son married to an Heathen woman, and not to a son born in such marriage:

so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy you
suddenly ;
by some immediate judgment striking dead at once; there being nothing more provoking to God than idolatry, that being directly contrary to his being, nature, perfections, honour, and glory, of which he is jealous.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (ryoy) "faciet recedere": Pagninus, Montanus; so Junius and Tremellius, Piscatus, Tigurine version, Vatablus, V. L. all in the singular number.

But thus shall you deal with them
The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:

you 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 which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; so Maimonides ^F5 says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the (hrva) , or "grove", spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used:

though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, (2 Kings 21:7) (23:6) ,

and burn their graven images with fire ;
distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, (Numbers 33:52) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.