Exodus 34:11

11 "Observe what I command you this day. Behold, 1I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the 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 And he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."
10 And he said, "Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
11 "Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst.
13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim

Cross References 1

  • 1. See Exodus 13:5
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.