Deuteronomy 7:4 (DRB)

Passage

For she will turn away thy son from following me, that he may rather serve strange gods, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled, and will quickly destroy thee.

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:2 And the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no league with them, nor shew mercy to them:

Deuteronomy 7:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for thy son:

Deuteronomy 7:4 For she will turn away thy son from following me, that he may rather serve strange gods, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled, and will quickly destroy thee.

Deuteronomy 7:5 But thus rather shall you deal with them: Destroy their altars, and break their statues, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven things.

Deuteronomy 7:6 Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be his peculiar people of all peoples that are upon the earth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "turn", "away", "following", "rather", "serve", "strange", "gods", and "wrath". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "turn" and "away", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them..." into verse 5's "But thus rather shall you deal with...", so "turn" and "away" 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 "turn" and "away" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.