Exodus 34:11

11 "Keep for yourself what I myself have commanded you today. Look, I [am about to] drive from before you the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and 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, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, Lord, let my Lord, please, go among us--indeed it is a stiff-necked people--and forgive our iniquity and our sin and {take us as your possession}."

10 And he said, "Look, I [am about to] make a covenant. In front of all your people I will do wonders that have not been created on all the earth and among all the nations, and all the people among whom you [are] will see Yahweh's work, because what I [am about to] do with you [will be] awesome.

11 "Keep for yourself what I myself have commanded you today. Look, I [am about to] drive from before you the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

12 Be careful for yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest it be a snare among you.

13 Rather, you will tear down their altars, and you will break their stone pillars, and you will cut off their Asherah poles.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "Canaanite"
• [b] Hebrew "Hittite"
• [c] Hebrew "Perizzite"
• [d] Hebrew "Hivite"
• [e] Hebrew "Jebusite"