Judges 3:6

3:6 They took the Canaanites’ daughters as wives and gave their daughters to the Canaanites; ¹  they worshiped ²  their gods as well.

Exodus 23:33

23:33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare ³  to you.”

Exodus 34:12

34:12 Be careful not to make ⁴  a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare ⁵  among you.

Deuteronomy 7:16

Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism

7:16 You must destroy ⁶  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ⁷  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ⁸  Girgashites, ⁹  Amorites, ¹⁰  Canaanites, ¹¹  Perizzites, ¹²  Hivites, ¹³  and Jebusites, ¹⁴  seven ¹⁵  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

Deuteronomy 11:1-7

Reiteration of the Call to Obedience

11:1 You must love the Lord your God and do what he requires; keep his statutes, ordinances, and commandments ¹⁶  at all times. 11:2 Bear in mind today that I am not speaking ¹⁷  to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments ¹⁸  of the Lord your God, which revealed ¹⁹  his greatness, strength, and power. ²⁰  11:3 They did not see ²¹  the awesome deeds he performed ²²  in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his whole land, 11:4 or what he did to the army of Egypt, including their horses and chariots, when he made the waters of the Red Sea ²³  overwhelm them while they were pursuing you and he ²⁴  annihilated them. ²⁵  11:5 They did not see ²⁶  what he did to you in the desert before you reached this place, 11:6 or what he did to Dathan and Abiram, ²⁷  sons of Eliab the Reubenite, ²⁸  when the earth opened its mouth in the middle of the Israelite camp ²⁹  and swallowed them, their families, ³⁰  their tents, and all the property they brought with them. ³¹  11:7 I am speaking to you ³²  because you are the ones who saw all the great deeds of the Lord!

Psalms 106:36

106:36 They worshiped ³³  their idols,

which became a snare to them. ³⁴ 

[3:6]  ¹ tn Heb “to their sons.”

[3:6]  ² tn Or “served”; or “followed” (this term occurs in the following verse as well).

[23:33]  ³ tn The idea of the “snare” is to lure them to judgment; God is apparently warning about contact with the Canaanites, either in worship or in business. They were very syncretistic, and so it would be dangerous to settle among them.

[34:12]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.

[7:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”

[7:16]  ⁷ tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

[7:1]  ⁹ sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ¹⁰ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ¹¹ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

[7:1]  ¹² sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ¹³ sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ¹⁴ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ¹⁵ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[11:1]  ¹⁶ tn This collocation of technical terms for elements of the covenant text lends support to its importance and also signals a new section of paraenesis in which Moses will exhort Israel to covenant obedience. The Hebrew term מִשְׁמָרוֹת (mishmarot, “obligations”) sums up the three terms that follow – חֻקֹּת (khuqot), מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim), and מִצְוֹת (mitsot).

[11:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “that not.” The words “I am speaking” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[11:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord.” The collocation of the verbs “know” and “see” indicates that personal experience (knowing by seeing) is in view. The term translated “discipline” (KJV, ASV “chastisement”) may also be rendered “instruction,” but vv. 2b-6 indicate that the referent of the term is the various acts of divine judgment the Israelites had witnessed.

[11:2]  ¹⁹ tn The words “which revealed” have been supplied in the translation to show the logical relationship between the terms that follow and the divine judgments. In the Hebrew text the former are in apposition to the latter.

[11:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his strong hand and his stretched-out arm.”

[11:3]  ²¹ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 2-7 are one long sentence. For stylistic reasons the English translation divides the passage into three sentences. To facilitate this stylistic decision the words “They did not see” are supplied at the beginning of both v. 3 and v. 5, and “I am speaking” at the beginning of v. 7.

[11:3]  ²² tn Heb “his signs and his deeds which he did” (NRSV similar). The collocation of “signs” and “deeds” indicates that these acts were intended to make an impression on observers and reveal something about God’s power (cf. v. 2b). The word “awesome” has been employed to bring out the force of the word “signs” in this context.

[11:4]  ²³ tn Heb “Reed Sea.” “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.

[11:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and the Lord destroyed them to this day” (cf. NRSV); NLT “he has kept them devastated to this very day.” The translation uses the verb “annihilated” to indicate the permanency of the action.

[11:5]  ²⁶ tn See note on these same words in v. 3.

[11:6]  ²⁷ sn Dathan and Abiram. These two (along with others) had challenged Moses’ leadership in the desert with the result that the earth beneath them opened up and they and their families disappeared (Num 16:1-3, 31-35).

[11:6]  ²⁸ tn Or “the descendant of Reuben”; Heb “son of Reuben.”

[11:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in the midst of all Israel” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB “among all Israel.” In the Hebrew text these words appear at the end of the verse, but they are logically connected with the verbs. To make this clear the translation places the phrase after the first verb.

[11:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their houses,” referring to all who lived in their household. Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “households.”

[11:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “and all the substance which was at their feet.”

[11:7]  ³² tn On the addition of these words in the translation see note on “They did not see” in v. 3.

[106:36]  ³³ tn Or “served.”

[106:36]  ³⁴ sn Became a snare. See Exod 23:33; Judg 2:3.