Exodus 23:20-33

Conquest of Canaan Promised

20 ¹"Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.

21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; ²do not rebel against him, ³for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him

22 "But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then ⁴I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

23 ⁵"When my angel goes before you and brings you ⁶to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,

24 you shall ⁷not bow down to their gods nor serve them, ⁸nor do as they do, but ⁹you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ¹⁰pillars in pieces.

25 You ¹¹shall serve the LORD your God, and ¹²he^[a] will bless your bread and your water, and ¹³I will take sickness away from among you.

26 ¹⁴None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the ¹⁵number of your days.

27 I will send ¹⁶my terror before you and will throw into ¹⁷confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

28 And ¹⁸I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

29 ¹⁹I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.

30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.

31 ²⁰And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for ²¹I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

32 ²²You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.

33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, ²³it will surely be a snare to you."

Exodus 23:20-33 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 23

This chapter contains several laws, chiefly judicial, relating to the civil polity of Israel, as concerning witness borne and judgment made of cases in courts of judicature, without any respect to poor or rich, and without the influence of a bribe, Ex 23:1-3,6-8, concerning doing good to an enemy in case any of his cattle go astray, or fall under their burden, Ex 23:4,5, and of the oppression of a stranger, Ex 23:9, and then follow others concerning the sabbath of the seventh year, and of the seventh day, with a caution against the use of the names of idols, Ex 23:10-13, next are laws concerning the appearance of all their males at the three feasts, Ex 23:14-17, and concerning the slaying of the sacrifice of the passover, and bringing the first of the firstfruits of the land, Ex 23:18,19 and then a promise is made of sending an angel to them to bring them into the land of Canaan, where they should carefully avoid all idolatry, and show a just indignation against it, and serve the Lord, and then it would be well with them, Ex 23:20-26, and particularly it is promised, that the Lord would send his fear, and his hornets, before them, to destroy the inhabitants of the land, and drive out the rest by little and little, until they should possess the utmost borders of it, which are fixed, Ex 23:27-31, and the chapter is concluded with a direction not to make a covenant with these people, or their gods, nor suffer them to dwell among them, lest they should be a snare unto them, Ex 23:32,33.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 14:19; Exodus 33:2, 14; Joshua 5:13, 14; Joshua 6:2; Isaiah 63:9
• 2. Psalms 78:40, 56
• 3. [Exodus 32:34; Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:35; Joshua 24:19]
• 4. Genesis 12:3; Deuteronomy 30:7; Jeremiah 30:20
• 5. [See ver. 20 above]
• 6. See Exodus 13:5
• 7. Exodus 20:5
• 8. Leviticus 18:3; Deuteronomy 12:30, 31
• 9. Exodus 34:13; Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 7:5, 25; Deuteronomy 12:3
• 10. See Deuteronomy 16:22
• 11. Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:12, 20; Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 13:4; Joshua 22:5; Matthew 4:10
• 12. Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 28:5, 8
• 13. Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 7:15
• 14. Deuteronomy 7:14
• 15. [Job 5:26; Psalms 55:23]
• 16. Deuteronomy 2:25; Joshua 2:9
• 17. Deuteronomy 7:23
• 18. Deuteronomy 7:20; Joshua 24:12
• 19. Deuteronomy 7:22
• 20. Genesis 15:18; Numbers 34:3; Deuteronomy 11:24; Joshua 1:4; [1 Kings 4:21, 24; Psalms 72:8]
• 21. Joshua 21:44; Judges 1:4; Judges 11:21
• 22. Exodus 34:12, 15; Deuteronomy 7:2
• 23. Exodus 34:12; Deuteronomy 7:16; Joshua 23:13; Judges 2:3; Psalms 106:36

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint, Vulgate I