Exodus 23:33
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They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This chapter continues and concludes the acts that passed in the first session (if I may so call it) upon mount Sinai. Here are, I. Some laws of universal obligation, relating especially to the ninth commandment, against bearing false witness (Exo 23:1), and giving false judgment (Exo 23:2, Exo 23:3, Exo 23:6-8). Also a law of doing good to our enemies (Exo 23:4, Exo 23:5), and not oppressing strangers (Exo 23:9). II. Some laws peculiar to the Jews. The sabbatical year (Exo 23:10, Exo 23:11), the three annual feasts (Exo 23:14-17), with some laws pertaining thereto. III. Gracious promises of the completing of the mercy God had begun for them, upon condition of their obedience. That God would conduct them through the wilderness (Exo 23:20-24), that he would prosper all they had (Exo 23:25, Exo 23:26), that he would put them in possession of Canaan (Exo 23:27-31). But they must not mingle themselves with the nations (Exo 23:32, Exo 23:33).
Open source ↗23:33 they will cause you to sin against me: The Canaanites were to be destroyed because there could be no truce between a holy God and sin. Furthermore, the continuance of God’s revelation, which was to culminate in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, depended on the survival of that revelation through the people of Israel. If they fell back into paganism, that could not happen.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.
So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”
be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”
So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.
“I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”