Exodus 23:32

32 "Don't make any deals with them or their gods.

Exodus 23:32 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:32

Thou shalt make no covenant with them
A covenant of peace, a league, a confederacy, so as to take them to be their allies and friends; but they were always to consider them as their enemies, until they had made an utter end of them; though the Gibeonites by craft and guile obtained a league of them; but the methods they took to get it show they had some knowledge of this law, that the Israelites might not, or at least would not, make any league or covenant with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. This may be also extended to marriage covenants, which they were forbid to make with them; which yet they did, and proved a snare to them, for this brought them to makes a covenant with their gods, and serve them, which is here also forbidden:

nor with their gods;
making vows unto them, promising to serve them, if they would do such and such things for them.

Exodus 23:32 In-Context

30 Little by little I'll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own.
31 I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I'm turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.
32 "Don't make any deals with them or their gods.
33 They are not to stay in the same country with you lest they get you to sin by worshiping their gods. Beware. That's a huge danger."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.