Exodus 34:12-14

34:12 Be careful not to make ¹  a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare ²  among you. 34:13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. ³  34:14 For you must not worship ⁴  any other god, ⁵  for the Lord, whose name ⁶  is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹ tn The exact expression is “take heed to yourself lest you make.” It is the second use of this verb in the duties, now in the Niphal stem. To take heed to yourself means to watch yourself, be sure not to do something. Here, if they failed to do this, they would end up making entangling treaties.

² sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.

³ tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”

⁴ tn Heb “bow down.”

⁵ sn In Exod 20:3 it was “gods.”

⁶ sn Here, too, the emphasis on God’s being a jealous God is repeated (see Exod 20:5). The use of “name” here is to stress that this is his nature, his character.