Exodus 23:31

31 I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea,[a] and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River.[b] For I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you will drive them out ahead of you.

Exodus 23:31 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:31

And I will set thy bounds
The bounds of the land of Canaan, which in process of time it should reach unto, though not at once, not until the times of David and Solomon, ( 2 Samuel 8:1-18 ) ( 1 Kings 4:24 ) which bounds were as follow:

from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines:
the Red sea was the boundary eastward, as the sea of the Philistines, or the Mediterranean sea, was the boundary westward:

and from the desert unto the river;
the desert of Shur or Arabia, towards Egypt, was the boundary southward, as the river Euphrates was the boundary northward, and is the river here meant, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; and so Jarchi interprets it, and generally others:

for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand;
the greater part upon their entrance into it, and settlement in it, and the rest afterwards:

and thou shalt drive them out before thee;
not all at once, but by degrees, as before observed.

Exodus 23:31 In-Context

29 I will not drive them out ahead of you in a single year; otherwise, the land would become desolate, and wild animals would multiply against you.
30 I will drive them out little by little ahead of you until you have become numerous and take possession of the land.
31 I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River. For I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you will drive them out ahead of you.
32 You must not make a covenant with them or their gods.
33 They must not remain in your land, or else they will make you sin against Me. If you worship their gods, it will be a snare for you."

Footnotes 2

Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.