John Gill 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)

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.