Exodus 34:10-17

34:10 He said, “See, I am going to make ¹  a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done ²  in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. ³ 

34:11 “Obey ⁴  what I am commanding you this day. I am going to drive out ⁵  before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 34:12 Be careful not to make ⁶  a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare ⁷  among you. 34:13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. ⁸  34:14 For you must not worship ⁹  any other god, ¹⁰  for the Lord, whose name ¹¹  is Jealous, is a jealous God. 34:15 Be careful ¹²  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ¹³  they prostitute themselves ¹⁴  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ¹⁵  you will eat from his sacrifice; 34:16 and you then take ¹⁶  his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well. 34:17 You must not make yourselves molten gods.

[34:10]  ¹ tn Here again is a use of the futur instans participle; the deictic particle plus the pronoun precedes the participle, showing what is about to happen.

[34:10]  ² tn The verb here is בָּרָא (bara’, “to create”). The choice of this verb is to stress that these wonders would be supernaturally performed, for the verb is used only with God as the subject.

[34:10]  ³ sn The idea is that God will be doing awesome things in dealing with them, i.e., to fulfill his program.

[34:11]  ⁴ tn The covenant duties begin with this command to “keep well” what is being commanded. The Hebrew expression is “keep for you”; the preposition and the suffix form the ethical dative, adding strength to the imperative.

[34:11]  ⁵ tn Again, this is the futur instans use of the participle.

[34:12]  ⁶ 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.

[34:12]  ⁷ sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.

[34:13]  ⁸ tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”

[34:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “bow down.”

[34:14]  ¹⁰ sn In Exod 20:3 it was “gods.”

[34:14]  ¹¹ 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.

[34:15]  ¹² tn The sentence begins simply “lest you make a covenant”; it is undoubtedly a continuation of the imperative introduced earlier, and so that is supplied here.

[34:15]  ¹³ tn The verb is a perfect with a vav consecutive. In the literal form of the sentence, this clause tells what might happen if the people made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land: “Take heed…lest you make a covenant…and then they prostitute themselves…and sacrifice…and invite…and you eat.” The sequence lays out an entire scenario.

[34:15]  ¹⁴ tn The verb זָנָה (zanah) means “to play the prostitute; to commit whoredom; to be a harlot” or something similar. It is used here and elsewhere in the Bible for departing from pure religion and engaging in pagan religion. The use of the word in this figurative sense is fitting, because the relationship between God and his people is pictured as a marriage, and to be unfaithful to it was a sin. This is also why God is described as a “jealous” or “impassioned” God. The figure may not be merely a metaphorical use, but perhaps a metonymy, since there actually was sexual immorality at the Canaanite altars and poles.

[34:15]  ¹⁵ tn There is no subject for the verb. It could be rendered “and one invites you,” or it could be made a passive.

[34:16]  ¹⁶ tn In the construction this verb would follow as a possible outcome of the last event, and so remain in the verbal sequence. If the people participate in the festivals of the land, then they will intermarry, and that could lead to further involvement with idolatry.