What Does Deuteronomy 7:2 Mean in the King James?
And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats the root ḥāram for “utterly destroy,” making the command an emphatic ban that ends in destruction.
THE MEANING
When the LORD gives these peoples before you, the command is to strike them, place them under the ban, make no covenant, and show them no mercy. It leaves no route to treaty or sparing; its stated end is the destruction of the people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the assumption that a victory attributed to God necessarily spares the defeated: here, it explicitly commands their destruction and refuses mercy.
THE ROOT
הַחֲרֵם תַּחֲרִים
haḥărēm taḥărīm
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־ם
ḥ-r-m
To ban or devote to destruction; the verb’s force here is made emphatic by repeating the root.
“utterly destroy” in this verse is haḥărēm taḥărīm. The Hebrew uses two forms of the same root, making this more than defeat in battle: the command places the people under a ban and names destruction as its outcome. The related noun חֵרֶם (ḥērem, a thing placed under the ban) shows that the root also names what has been so devoted.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A thing placed under the ban or devoted to destruction.
חֵרֶם
The noun names the status the repeated verb imposes in this command.
haḥărēm: Place under the ban or devote to destruction.
הַחֲרֵם
This form echoes תַּחֲרִים (taḥărīm) in the verse, intensifying the command through repetition.
וּנְתָנָם
ûnetānām
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The verb behind “deliver” carries the sense of giving or placing them before you. That placement comes first in the verse; the striking and ban follow.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb’s root form and preserves the sense of placing them before you.
mattānāh: Gift or thing given.
מַתָּנָה
The noun shares the root of the giving verb, showing its wider reach across words for giving and what is given.
תְחָנֵּם
teḥonnēm
GROWS FROM
ח־נ־ן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor or act graciously.
“shew mercy” in this verse is teḥonnēm. The verse closes not only the path to covenant but also the path to favor. The root adds that shade beneath “mercy”: no favorable exception is to be granted.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor or grace.
חֵן
This noun shares the root and makes the favor withheld in the verse visible.
teḥinnāh: A plea for favor or supplication.
תְּחִנָּה
The related word evokes an appeal for favor, the very opening this command closes.
THE PATTERN
Where the text invokes the ban, victory is framed as total destruction rather than treaty or sparing.
But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.THE THREAD
Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.The phrase “cursed thing” translates חֵרֶם (ḥērem), from the same root as “utterly destroy.” The shared root links the command to destroy with the status of something placed under the ban.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us