Exodus 23:29

Exo 23:29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

Ver. 29. In one year.] God’s time is best: and to prescribe to him is to set the sun by our dial. His help seems long, because we are short. Wait upon him, who waits to show us mercy. {Isa 30:18}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 23:29. Lest the land be desolate — The Israelites were not numerous enough to people all the land immediately. Providence had likewise another end in view in suffering some of the Canaanites to remain in the land: they were to prove Israel, and show whether they would hearken unto the commandment of the Lord, Jdg 3:4. And the beast of the field multiply — The wild beasts from Arabia Deserta made frequent inroads into Canaan, in quest of prey, and were not to be driven out but by continual hunting.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23:29-31 I will: God, not Israel, would take the land. The land would be a gift from their Covenant Lord. Israel was being granted possession of it as long as they faithfully fulfilled the covenant.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will not drive . . . out . . . in one year; lest the land become desolate--Many reasons recommend a gradual extirpation of the former inhabitants of Canaan. But only one is here specified--the danger lest, in the unoccupied grounds, wild beasts should inconveniently multiply; a clear proof that the promised land was more than sufficient to contain the actual population of the Israelites.

Next: Exodus Chapter 24

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(29) The beast of the field.—Comp. 2Ki_17:25-26, where we find that this result followed the deportation of the Samaritans by the Assyrians.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29, 30. 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, Deu_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. Jos_10:28-43; Jos_11:16-23; Jos_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 (Jos_13:13; Jos_15:63; Jos_16:10; Jos_17:11-18, Jdg_1:19; Jdg_1:21; Jdg_1:27-35; Jdg_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. Jdg_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 (2Ki_17:25 f.; cf. Lev_26:22, Eze_14:15; Eze_14:21): for other theories, see Jdg_2:20 to Jdg_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 (1Ki_4:21). For similar promises, see Gen_15:18, Deu_11:24 (whence Jos_1:4); and cf. (in the picture of the restored Israel of the future) Isa_27:12.

the River] i.e. the River, κατʼ 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. Isa_7:20; Isa_27:12, Psa_72:8; Psa_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), Exo_34:12-16, Deu_7:2-5; cf. Jos_23:12-13 (D2[197]), Jdg_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 not serve,’ &c. (LXX., Pesh.; cf. Deu_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 Exo_10:7; and see esp. 1Sa_18:21. Of the gods of Canaan, as here, Exo_34:12, and in the reminiscences, Deu_7:16, Jdg_2:3; and of the Canaanites themselves, Jos_23:13 (D2[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. Deu_7:2-5; Deu_12:2-3; Deu_12:29-31.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And I will set thy bounds,.... The bounds of the land of Canaan, which in process of time it should reach unto, though not at once, not until the times of David and Solomon, Sa2 8:1 which bounds were as follow:

from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines: the Red sea was the boundary eastward, as the sea of the Philistines, or the Mediterranean sea, was the boundary westward:

and from the desert unto the river; the desert of Shur or Arabia, towards Egypt, was the boundary southward, as the river Euphrates was the boundary northward, and is the river here meant, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; and so Jarchi interprets it, and generally others:

for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; the greater part upon their entrance into it, and settlement in it, and the rest afterwards:

and thou shalt drive them out before thee; not all at once, but by degrees, as before observed.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Beast of the field - i. e. destructive animals.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Beasts. Herod the great killed many in hunting. (Josephus, Jewish Wars i. 16.) Two bears rushed upon the children, 4 Kings ii. 24. How much would they have increased in all the countries from the Euphrates to the Nile, had they been destitute of any other inhabitants but the Hebrews, (Calmet) many of whom perished in the desert!

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Desolate, void of inhabitants in a great measure, because thy present number is not sufficient to occupy and manage their whole land.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Lest the land become desolate — And so the promised Canaan be turned into a howling wilderness instead of being a land flowing with milk and honey.

Beast of the field multiply — As was actually the case long afterward by depopulating the cities of Samaria after the deportation of the northern tribes of Israel. 2Ki_17:25-26.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will not drive them out from before thee in one year. The Divine action is for the most part "slack, as men count slackness it is not hasty, spasmodic, precipitate, as human action is too often. Men are impatient; God is strangely, wonderfully patient. He would not drive out the Canaanitish nations all at once

1. Lest the land should become desolate, there being an insufficient population to keep down the weeds and maintain the tillage; and

2. Lest the beast of the field should multiply so as to become a danger to the new-comers. It is related that when the kingdom of Samaria was depopulated by the removal of the Ten Tribes, there was a great increase of lions, which preyed upon the scanty remnant left. (2Ki_17:25) Even in France, after the Franco-German war, it was found that in many districts wolves increased. A third reason why the nations were not subdued all at once, not mentioned here, is touched in Jud 2:21-23 Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily, thatthrough them he might prove Israel, whether they would keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, or not."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

שממה DESOLATE — empty of human beings, for you are but few and not sufficient to fill it all up.

ורבה עליך means, [LEST THE ANIMALS OF THE FIELD] MULTIPLY AGAINST THEE.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.