Deuteronomy 7:12 (DBY)

Passage

And it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Jehovah thy God will keep with thee the covenant and the mercy which he swore unto thy fathers;

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:10 and repayeth them that hate him [each] to his face, to cause them to perish: he delayeth not with him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

Deuteronomy 7:11 And thou shalt keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Deuteronomy 7:12 And it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Jehovah thy God will keep with thee the covenant and the mercy which he swore unto thy fathers;

Deuteronomy 7:13 and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee, and will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, thy corn and thy new wine, and thine oil, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep, in the land which he swore unto thy fathers to give thee.

Deuteronomy 7:14 Thou shalt be blessed above all the peoples; there shall not be male or female barren with thee, or with thy cattle;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "mercy", "shall", "come", "pass", "hearken", "ordinances", "keep", and "jehovah". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "mercy" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "And thou shalt keep the commandment and..." into verse 13's "and he will love thee and bless...", so "mercy" and "shall" 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 "mercy" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.