Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
Parallel translations
- WEB Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the middle of you:
- KJV Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
- NKJV Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.
- NASB Be careful that you do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.
- NLT “Be very careful never to make a treaty with the people who live in the land where you are going. If you do, you will follow their evil ways and be trapped.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel is warned not to make a covenant with the land's inhabitants, lest it become a snare. Compromise with idolatry is a deadly trap.
Overview
God commands separation from the Canaanites' false worship to protect Israel from being ensnared. The danger is not the people as such but the idolatry that would lure Israel away from the Lord. The principle endures: God's people must guard against entanglements that draw the heart away from exclusive devotion to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Exod 23:32–33You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
- Josh 23:12–13For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them,
- Deut 7:2and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
- Deut 7:16You 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.
- Judg 2:2–3and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?
- Ps 106:36They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
- Judg 8:27From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 34:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.