Deuteronomy 7 — Dead Sea Scrolls
2 attestation entries • 0 variants • 4QDeut family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
Deuteronomy 7 commands the herem against the Canaanite nations and grounds Israel's election in covenant love. 4QDeutᵉ preserves substantial portions of chapters 7–8 and is the primary continuous witness. 5QDeut covers the transition from chapter 7 to chapter 8.
Notable Variants
No significant content variants. The herem command (vv. 1–6) and the election rationale (vv. 7–8) read identically to the MT. Orthographic differences only.
Manuscripts
4QDeutᵉ (4Q32), 4QDeutᶜ (4Q30), 4QDeutᶠ (4Q33), 4QDeutᵐ (4Q40), 5QDeut (5Q1)
Scroll Condition
4QDeutᵉ provides moderately continuous text; other manuscripts attest scattered verses.
For you are a people set apart for the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His treasured possession.
The election language ('a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD has chosen you') tracks MT. Echoed at 1 Pet 2:9.
4QDeutᵉ frag.
Rather, it was because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath He swore to your ancestors that He brought you out with a powerful hand and ransomed you from the slave house, from the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
The covenant-love rationale ('but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers') tracks MT.
4QDeutᵉ frag.