Exodus 34:12

12 take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land into which thou art going, lest it become a snare in thy midst;

Exodus 34:12 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 34:12

Take heed to thyself
This is said not to Moses, but to the people of Israel, as a caution to them when they should enter the land of Canaan, and possess it:

lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither
thou goest:
enter into a league and alliance, to live friendly and amicably, and support and assist each other against the common enemy; whereas they were to smite the seven nations and destroy them, and show them no mercy, ( Deuteronomy 7:1 Deuteronomy 7:2 )

lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee;
be the means of drawing them into the same sinful practices with themselves, especially into idolatrous ones, and so of bringing ruin and destruction on them.

Exodus 34:12 In-Context

10 And He saith, `Lo, I am making a covenant: before all thy people I do wonders, which have not been done in all the earth, or in any nation, and all the people in whose midst thou [art] have seen the work of Jehovah, for it [is] fearful that which I am doing with thee.

11 `Observe for thyself that which I am commanding thee to-day: lo, I am casting out from before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite;

12 take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land into which thou art going, lest it become a snare in thy midst;

13 for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down;

14 for ye do not bow yourselves to another god -- for Jehovah, whose name [is] Zealous, is a zealous God.