Deuteronomy 7:16 (ASV)

Passage

And thou shalt consume all the peoples that Jehovah thy God shall deliver unto thee; thine eye shall not pity them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:14 Thou shalt be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

Deuteronomy 7:15 And Jehovah will take away from thee all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, will he put upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

Deuteronomy 7:16 And thou shalt consume all the peoples that Jehovah thy God shall deliver unto thee; thine eye shall not pity them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

Deuteronomy 7:17 If thou shalt say in thy heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

Deuteronomy 7:18 thou shalt not be afraid of them: thou shalt well remember what Jehovah thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "shalt", "consume", "peoples", "jehovah", "shall", "deliver", and "thee". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "shalt", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "And Jehovah will take away from thee..." into verse 17's "If thou shalt say in thy heart...", so "thou" and "shalt" belong inside that flow. In Deuteronomy context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thou" and "shalt" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.