Deuteronomy 7:2 (GNV)

Passage

And the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, then thou shalt smite them: thou shalt vtterly destroy them: thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor haue compassion on them,

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:1 When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possesse it, and shall roote out many nations before thee: the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, seuen nations greater and mightier then thou,

Deuteronomy 7:2 And the Lord thy God shall giue them before thee, then thou shalt smite them: thou shalt vtterly destroy them: thou shalt make no couenant with them, nor haue compassion on them,

Deuteronomy 7:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, neither giue thy daughter vnto his sonne, nor take his daughter vnto thy sonne.

Deuteronomy 7:4 For they wil cause thy sonne to turne away from me, and to serue other gods: then will the wrath of the Lord waxe hote against you and destroy thee suddenly.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "When the Lord thy God shall bring..." into verse 3's "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them...", so "lord" 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 "lord" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.