2 The Lord your God will hand them over to you. You will win the battle over them. You must completely destroy them. Don't make a peace treaty with them. Don't show them any mercy.
3 Don't get married to any of them. Don't give your daughters to their sons. And don't take their daughters for your sons.
4 If you do, those people will turn your children away from following the Lord. Then your children will serve other gods. The Lord's anger will burn against you. It will quickly destroy you.
5 So here is what you must do to those people. Break down their altars. Smash their sacred stones. Cut down the poles they use to worship the goddess Asherah. Burn the statues of their gods in the fire.
6 You are a holy nation. The Lord your God has set you apart for himself. He has chosen you to be his special treasure. He chose you out of all of the nations on the face of the earth to be his people.
7 The Lord chose you because he loved you very much. He didn't choose you because you had more people than other nations. In fact, you had the smallest number of all.
8 The Lord chose you because he loved you. He wanted to keep the promise he had made with an oath to your people long ago. That's why he brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He bought you back from the land where you were slaves. He set you free from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.