Exodus 23:29-33

The expulsion of the Canaanites will however be gradual: it will not be completed till the Israelites are numerous enough to fill effectually the territory vacated by them. Hence, with verbal variations, Deuteronomy 7:22. The representation is in striking contrast to the idealized pictures of rapid conquests drawn in the Deuteronomic sections of the book of Joshua, from which the popular conception of the -extermination of the Canaanites" is derived (e.g. Joshua 10:28-43; Joshua 11:16-23; Joshua 21:43-45); but it agrees with the accounts given in the older strata of Joshua and Judges, according to which there were many districts from which the Israelites were unable to expel the Canaanites, and the country as a whole was only occupied by them gradually (Joshua 13:13; Joshua 15:63; Joshua 16:10; Joshua 17:11-18; Judges 1:19; Judges 1:21; Judges 1:27-35; Judges 1:9). The historical reason why the Canaanites thus remained so long in many parts of the land was because the Israelites had not the military resources enabling them to cope with them (cf. Judges 1:19); but the fact nevertheless remained one which many religiously-minded Israelites found it difficult to reconcile with their sense of Jehovah's sovereignty; and different moral, or religious, theories were framed to account for it. Here it is explained as due to Jehovah's care that unoccupied spots should not be left in the land, on which wild beasts might multiply and become a danger to the Israelites (2 Kings 17:25 f.; cf. Leviticus 26:22; Ezekiel 14:15; Ezekiel 14:21): for other theories, see Judges 2:20 to Judges 3:4 (comp. LOT.8 p. 165 f.).

31a. Israel's territory will reach, beyond Canaan itself, from the Red Sea to the -sea of the Philistines" (i.e. the SE. coast of the Medit. Sea including the Philistine territory itself), and from -the wilderness (i.e. the wilderness on the S. of Palestine) to the Euphrates. An ideal description of the extent of Isr. territory, once, at least according to tradition, realised in history, under Solomon (1 Kings 4:21). For similar promises, see Genesis 15:18; Deuteronomy 11:24 (whence Joshua 1:4); and cf. (in the picture of the restored Israel of the future) Isaiah 27:12.

the River i.e. the River, κατ ʼ ἐξοχήν, to the Hebrews, the Euphrates. The word, when the Euphrates is intended, is always in RV. printed with a capital R: see e.g. Isaiah 7:20; Isaiah 27:12; Psalms 72:8; Psalms 80:11.

31b 33. Regarded by We., Di., Bä. and most critics as another expansion of the original text, similar to vv.23 25a, partly because reverts to the subject of Israel's attitude towards the gods of Canaan, already dealt with in v.24, but chiefly because, whereas in vv.27 Jehovah promises that He will Himself drive out the Canaanites before Israel, here their expulsion is laid as a duty upon Israel.

32, 33. No treaty of friendship or alliance to be entered into with the Canaanites, lest Israel be seduced by them into idolatry. The same warning (with the consequences of such alliance more fully developed), Exodus 34:12-16; Deuteronomy 7:2-5; cf. Joshua 23:12-13 (D 2 [197]), Judges 2:2-3 (compiler).

[197] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings.

33. for thou wilt serve their gods, for it will become a snare unto thee. So the Heb. literally. There must be some fault in the text; but the general sense of the passage is no doubt correctly given. - And thou shalt notserve," &c. (LXX., Pesh.; cf. Deuteronomy 7:16 b) would be the simplest change; but it is not easy palaeographically (ולא for כי).

a snare i.e. not, an enticement to sin, but a lure to destruction. Cf. on Exodus 10:7; and see esp. 1 Samuel 18:21. Of the gods of Canaan, as here, Exodus 34:12, and in the reminiscences, Deuteronomy 7:16; Judges 2:3; and of the Canaanites themselves, Joshua 23:13 (D 2 [198]). Warnings against holding intercourse with the Canaanites, and commands to overthrow their altars, &c. (vv.23 25a, and 31b 33), are also characteristic of Deuteronomy: see e.g. Deuteronomy 7:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:2-3; Deuteronomy 12:29-31.

[198] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings.