Deuteronomy 7:16 (LSB)

Passage

And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle.

Deuteronomy 7:15 And Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you.

Deuteronomy 7:16 And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 7:17 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’

Deuteronomy 7:18 you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "consume", "peoples", "yahweh", "give", "over", and "pity". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "consume", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "And Yahweh will take away from you..." into verse 17's "If you should say in your heart...", so "shall" and "consume" 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 "shall" and "consume" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.