Exodus 34:11

11 Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Exodus 34:11 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 34:11

Observe thou that which I command thee this day
Which words are either said to Moses personally, as Aben Ezra thinks, as a direction to him to observe what had been said to him, and declare them to the children of Israel; or rather to the children of Israel, and respect the commands which are afterwards delivered out to be observed by them in the following verses; and what is expressed in the next clause is such as was not done by the ministry of Moses, nor in his time:

behold, I drive out before thee;
not before Moses, but the people of Israel,

the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite;
six nations are only mentioned, though there were seven, the Girgashites being omitted, because either they left the land before, as some think, or because they at once submitted; they are added in the Septuagint version.

Exodus 34:11 In-Context

9 “O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

10 And the LORD said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you.

11 Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

12 Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.

13 Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.