Deuteronomy 7:1

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;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

VII.

(1) When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land. . . .—The former chapter applies the Decalogue to the love of Jehovah and of His word, and to faith in Him as the God of Israel; and thus it may be regarded as an expansion of the first commandment. The exhortation in this chapter concerns the treatment of idolaters in the conquest of Canaan, and the avoidance of all such intercourse or union with them as might tend to turn Israel from Jehovah. Obviously, this may be connected both with the first and with the second commandment.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:1. Seven nations — Ten are mentioned, Genesis 15:19; but this being some hundreds of years after, it is not strange if three of them were either destroyed by foreign or domestic wars, or by cohabitation and marriage united with and swallowed up in the rest.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-11 Here is a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God, must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. Limiting the orders to destroy, to the nations here mentioned, plainly shows that after ages were not to draw this into a precedent. A proper understanding of the evil of sin, and of the mystery of a crucified Saviour, will enable us to perceive the justice of God in all his punishments, temporal and eternal. We must deal decidedly with our lusts that war against our souls; let us not show them any mercy, but mortify, and crucify, and utterly destroy them. Thousands in the world that now is, have been undone by ungodly marriages; for there is more likelihood that the good will be perverted, than that the bad will be converted. Those who, in choosing yoke-fellows, keep not within the bounds of a profession of religion, cannot promise themselves helps meet for them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See Deuteronomy 6:10 note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 7

De 7:1-26. All Communion with the Nations Forbidden.

1. the Hittites—This people were descended from Heth, the second son of Canaan (Ge 10:15), and occupied the mountainous region about Hebron, in the south of Palestine.

the Girgashites—supposed by some to be the same as the Gergesenes (Mt 8:28), who lay to the east of Lake Gennesareth; but they are placed on the west of Jordan (Jos 24:11), and others take them for a branch of the large family of the Hivites, as they are omitted in nine out of ten places where the tribes of Canaan are enumerated; in the tenth they are mentioned, while the Hivites are not.

the Amorites—descended from the fourth son of Canaan. They occupied, besides their conquest on the Moabite territory, extensive settlements west of the Dead Sea, in the mountains.

the Canaanites—located in Phœnicia, particularly about Tyre and Sidon, and being sprung from the oldest branch of the family of Canaan, bore his name.

the Perizzites—that is, villagers, a tribe who were dispersed throughout the country and lived in unwalled towns.

the Hivites—who dwelt about Ebal and Gerizim, extending towards Hermon. They are supposed to be the same as the Avims.

the Jebusites—resided about Jerusalem and the adjacent country.

seven nations greater and mightier than thou—Ten were formerly mentioned (Ge 15:19-21). But in the lapse of near five hundred years, it cannot be surprising that some of them had been extinguished in the many intestine feuds that prevailed among those warlike tribes. It is more than probable that some, stationed on the east of Jordan, had fallen under the victorious arms of the Israelites.Israel is commanded to cast out the Hittites, the Perizzites, &c. Deu 7:1. All communion with them forbidden, Deu 7:2,3, for fear of idolatry, Deu 7:4. They must ruin the places of idolatry, Deu 7:5. The Israelites’ holiness and relation to God, Deu 7:6. His faithfulness to the obedient, Deu 7:9; and vengeance on them that hate him, Deu 7:10. The advantages of obedience, Deu 7:12-16. God encourages them, and promises to drive out the nations before there, Deu 7:17-24. They are commanded to destroy their images, Deu 7:25; and keep themselves clean from their cursed things, Deu 7:26.

There were ten in Genesis 15:19-21; but this being some hundreds of years after that, it is not strange if three of them were either destroyed by foreign or domestic wars, or by cohabitation and marriage united with and swallowed up in some of the rest.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest 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 hath cast out many nations before thee; 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, the country of the Gergesenes, the same with the Girgashites, continued its name unto the times of Christ, Matthew 8:28,

seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 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 Kenizires, and the Rephaim; for instead of the Kadmonites the Hivites are here put, which seem to be the same.

Geneva Study Bible

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;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. shall bring thee into, etc.] See on Deuteronomy 6:10.

shall cast out, etc.] strip, or clear, off; Deuteronomy 7:22, 2 Kings 16:6 : the only applications of this verb to the extirpation of human beings; in Deuteronomy 19:5 intrans. of the slipping of an axe-head from the heft, Deuteronomy 28:40 the dropping of olives. J E of drawing off sandals, Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15.

The list of seven nations which follows is of a kind frequent in JE, D (Deuteronomy 20:17) and deuteronomic passages in other books; ‘in many cases probably—Joshua 24:11 is one that is very clear—introduced by the compiler’ (Dri.), but always with a rhetorical purpose. The order and even the contents of these lists vary; for details see Driver on this verse, and on Exodus 3:8.

Hittite] Egyptian and Assyrian monuments record a Ḥittite power in N. Syria with a centre at Ḳadesh on the Orontes. Jdg 1:26; Jdg 3:23, Joshua 11:3 (in these last two read Ḥittite for Ḥivite) bring the name as far as the S. end of Mt Hermon. P mentions people of the same or a similar name in S. Palestine as owning the land about Ḥebron (Genesis 23:3; Genesis 23:10), and gives Esau wives of the daughters of Ḥeth (Genesis 26:4; Genesis 27:46). Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:3, cp. Ezekiel 16:45) calls the mother of Jerusalem a Ḥittite. On these grounds (and others) the existence of at least Ḥittite colonies or suzerainties in S. Palestine has been maintained. But in P Ḥittite may be used in the same general sense as Amorite in E and D and Canaanite in J; cp. Joshua 1:4 (deuteronomic) all the land of the Ḥ. = all Syria, which the Assyrians also mean by ‘the land of the Khatti’; and P’s Ḥittites at Hebron are called Amorites by E, Joshua 10:5; while Ezekiel, too, may have no ethnological distinction in mind, but may mean only to emphasise the inborn heathenism of Jerusalem. The question is still uncertain and of no importance for the understanding of a rhetorical list like this. For details see the writer’s Jerus. II. 16–18.

Girgashite] in but a few of the lists; here, Joshua 3:10; Joshua 24:11; Genesis 15:21. Genesis 10:16 (J) puts them under the political supremacy of Canaan (begotten by C.) or Phoenicia. Their territory is unknown. The name seems onomatopoetic like Zamzummim (Deuteronomy 2:20); cp. Arab, ‘garas,’ to make a low sound or speak softly.

Amorite … Canaanite] See on Deuteronomy 1:7.

Perizzite] in all but two or three of the lists. J mentions this people, along with the Canaanite, as Israel’s predecessors (Genesis 13:7; Genesis 34:30; Jdg 1:4-5), and their land as in the centre of the range of W. Palestine (Joshua 17:15). The name has been derived, but not certainly, from perazah, ‘open region’ or ‘region of unwalled towns,’ perazi, ‘the inhabitant of such’ (Deuteronomy 3:5).

Hivite] in all the lists. In J they are subject to Phoenicia (Canaan, Genesis 10:17) and the Gibeonites are called Ḥivites (Joshua 9:7; cp. the deuteronomic Deuteronomy 11:19). In 2 Samuel 24:7 their cities are coupled with those of the Canaanites as now Israel’s. The Heb. Ḥiwwi seems connected with ḥawwah, tent-village.

Jebusite] in all the lists save one; according to J and other sources the inhabitants of Jerusalem and its land till their conquest by David (Joshua 15:63; Jdg 1:21; Jdg 19:11; 2 Samuel 5:6; 2 Samuel 5:8); cf. P’s the shoulder of the Jebusite, that is Jerusalem, Joshua 18:16; Joshua 18:28. See the writer’s Jerus. i. 226 f., ii. 18, 28.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - (Cf. Genesis 15:19-21.) Of the ten nations named by God in his promise to Abraham, only six are mentioned here, those omitted being the Kenites, the Kennizites, the Kadmonites, and the Rephaim. The Rephaim were by this time extinct as a tribe, Og, "the last of the Rephaim," having been conquered, and he and his people destroyed by the Israelites. The three other tribes lay probably beyond the confines of Canaan, in that region promised to Abraham, but which was not included in the territory conquered by the people under Joshua. This may account for their not being mentioned here. One nation, the Hivites, appears here which is not in the enumeration in Genesis. This name seems to have been borne by more tribes than one, or by a tribe existing in divisions widely scattered, for we find the Hivite in the center of Palestine (Genesis 34:2), in the Shephelah (Joshua 9:7; Joshua 11:19), in the laud of Mizpeh under Hermon (Joshua 11:3), "in Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon to the entering in of Hamath" (Judges 3:3), and among tribes in the north of Canaan (Genesis 10:17; 1 Chronicles 1:15). Their principal settlement was probably in that part of the country where the Antilibanus range terminates in Mount Hermon. Deuteronomy 7:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As the Israelites were warned against idolatry in Deuteronomy 6:14, so here are they exhorted to beware of the false tolerance of sparing the Canaanites and enduring their idolatry. - Deuteronomy 7:1, Deuteronomy 7:5. When the Lord drove out the tribes of Canaan before the Israelites, and gave them up to them and smote them, they were to put them under the ban (see at Leviticus 27:28), to make no treaty with them, and to contract no marriage with them. נשׁל, to draw out, to cast away, e.g., the sandals (Exodus 3:5); here and Deuteronomy 7:22 it signifies to draw out, or drive out a nation from its country and possessions: it occurs in this sense in the Piel in 2 Kings 16:6. On the Canaanitish tribes, see at Genesis 10:15. and Deuteronomy 15:20-21. There are seven of them mentioned here, as in Joshua 3:10 and Joshua 24:11; on the other hand, there are only six in Deuteronomy 20:17, as in Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17; Exodus 23:23, and Exodus 33:2, the Girgashites being omitted. The prohibition against making a covenant, as in Exodus 23:32 and Exodus 34:12, and that against marrying, as in Exodus 34:16, where the danger of the Israelites being drawn away to idolatry is mentioned as a still further reason for these commands. יסיר כּי, "for he (the Canaanite) will cause thy son to turn away from behind me," i.e., tempt him away from following me, "to serve other gods." Moses says "from following me," because he is speaking in the name of Jehovah. The consequences of idolatry, as in Deuteronomy 6:15; Deuteronomy 4:26, etc.