Deuteronomy Chapter 7

“When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, etc.] 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…”

“ALL COMMUNION WITH THE NATIONS FORBIDDEN. (Deu. 7:1-26) the Hittites--This people were descended from Heth, the second son of Canaan (Gen 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 (Mat 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…”

“See Deuteronomy 6:10 note. Deuteronomy 7:5 Their groves - Render, their idols of wood: the reference is to the wooden trunk used as a representation of Ashtaroth; see Deuteronomy 7:13 and Exodus 34:13 note. Deuteronomy 7:7 The fewest of all people - God chose for Himself Israel, when as yet but a single family, or rather a single person, Abraham; though there were already numerous nations and powerful kingdoms in the earth. Increase Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 10:22 had taken place because of the very blessing of God spoken of in Deuteronomy 7:8. Deuteronomy 7:10 Repayeth them that hate him to their face - i.…”

“Seven nations - There were ten in Gen 15:19-21. But this being some hundreds of years after, it is not strange if three of them were either destroyed by foreign or domestick wars, or by cohabitation and marriage united with, and swallowed up in the rest. Deuteronomy 7:4”

“7:1-26 Before Israel could occupy the land of promise (cp. Gen 13:14-17; 15:18-21), the nations already living there had to be removed. The land was the Lord’s, and only he could determine who the inhabitants should be. 7:1 The Hittites were native to Anatolia (now north-central Turkey). They established colonies in far-flung areas such as Syria and were also linked to Canaan in the list of ancient nations (see Gen 10:15; 23:3-20). The Hittite empire came to a sudden end around 1200 BC, but people known as Hittites continued to live in Israel (e.g., Uriah the Hittite, 2 Sam 11:3; 23:39). It is impossible to prove…”

“the Lord: Deu 4:38, Deu 6:1, Deu 6:10, Deu 6:19, Deu 6:23, Deu 9:1, Deu 9:4, Deu 11:29, Deu 31:3, Deu 31:20; Exo 6:8, Exo 15:7; Num 14:31; Psa 44:2, Psa 44:3, Psa 78:55 the Hittites: With respect to the situation of these nations in the land of Canaan, Calmet remarks, that the Canaanites chiefly inhabited Phoenecia; the Hittites, the mountains south of the promised land; the Hivites, mount Ebal, and Gerizim, and towards Hermon; the Girgashites, beyond Jordan, towards the lake of Gennesareth, the Jebusistes, about Jerusalem; the Amorites, the mountains west of the Dead Sea, and part of the land of Moab; and that…”

“As the Israelites were warned against idolatry in Deu 6:14, so here are they exhorted to beware of the false tolerance of sparing the Canaanites and enduring their idolatry. - Deu 7:1, Deu 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 Lev 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 ( Exo 3:5); here and Deu 7:22 it signifies to draw out, or drive out a nation from its country and possessions: it occurs in this sense in the…”