Add parallel Print Page Options

27 “I will send my terror[a] before you, and I will alarm[b] all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs[c] to you.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Exodus 23:27 tn The word for “terror” is אֵימָתִי (ʾemati); the word has the thought of “panic” or “dread.” God would make the nations panic as they heard of the exploits and knew the Israelites were drawing near. U. Cassuto thinks the reference to “hornets” in v. 28 may be a reference to this fear, an unreasoning dread, rather than to another insect invasion (Exodus, 308). Others suggest it is symbolic of an invading army or a country like Egypt or literal insects (see E. Neufeld, “Insects as Warfare Agents in the Ancient Near East,” Or 49 [1980]: 30-57).
  2. Exodus 23:27 tn Heb “discomfit” or “bring into confusion.”
  3. Exodus 23:27 tn The text has “and I will give all your enemies to you [as] a back.” The verb of making takes two accusatives, the second being the adverbial accusative of product (see GKC 371-72 §117.ii, n. 1).

28 I will send[a] hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Exodus 23:28 tn Heb “and I will send.”

20 Furthermore, the Lord your God will release hornets[a] among them until the very last ones who hide from you[b] perish.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 7:20 tn The meaning of the term translated “hornets” (צִרְעָה, tsirʿah) is debated. Various suggestions are “discouragement” (HALOT 1056-57 s.v.; cf. NEB, TEV, CEV “panic”; NCV “terror”) and “leprosy” (J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 360, n. 33; cf. NRSV “the pestilence”), as well as “hornet” (BDB 864 s.v.; cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). The latter seems most suitable to the verb שָׁלַח (shalakh, “send”; cf. Exod 23:28; Josh 24:12).
  2. Deuteronomy 7:20 tn Heb “the remnant and those who hide themselves.”