Exodus 23:32

32 thou shalt not make bond of peace with them, neither with their gods. (thou shalt not make a covenant with them, nor with their gods.)

Exodus 23:32 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:32

Thou shalt make no covenant with them
A covenant of peace, a league, a confederacy, so as to take them to be their allies and friends; but they were always to consider them as their enemies, until they had made an utter end of them; though the Gibeonites by craft and guile obtained a league of them; but the methods they took to get it show they had some knowledge of this law, that the Israelites might not, or at least would not, make any league or covenant with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. This may be also extended to marriage covenants, which they were forbid to make with them; which yet they did, and proved a snare to them, for this brought them to makes a covenant with their gods, and serve them, which is here also forbidden:

nor with their gods;
making vows unto them, promising to serve them, if they would do such and such things for them.

Exodus 23:32 In-Context

30 little and little I shall cast them out from thy sight, till thou be increased, and wield the land.

31 Forsooth and I shall set thy terms from the Red Sea till to the sea of Palestines, and from the desert till to the flood (And I shall set thy borders from the Red Sea unto the Sea of the Philistines, or the Mediterranean Sea, and from the wilderness unto the Euphrates River). I shall give (in)to your hands the dwellers of the land, and I shall cast them out from your sight;

32 thou shalt not make bond of peace with them, neither with their gods. (thou shalt not make a covenant with them, nor with their gods.)

33 Dwell they not in thy land, lest peradventure they make thee to do sin against me; if thou servest their gods, which thing certainly shall be to thee into cause of stumbling. (They shall not continue to live in thy land, lest they make thee to sin against me; for if thou servest their gods, that certainly shall become a cause of stumbling for thee.)