Deuteronomy 7:2 (LSB)

Passage

and when Yahweh your God gives them over before you and you strike them down, then you shall devote them to destruction. You shall cut no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 7:1 “When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and He clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and stronger than you,

Deuteronomy 7:2 and when Yahweh your God gives them over before you and you strike them down, then you shall devote them to destruction. You shall cut no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

Deuteronomy 7:3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

Deuteronomy 7:4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "yahweh", "gives", "over", "before", "strike", "down", "shall", and "devote". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "yahweh" and "gives", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "When Yahweh your God brings you into..." into verse 3's "Furthermore you shall not intermarry with them...", so "yahweh" and "gives" 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 "yahweh" and "gives" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.