Exodus 23:20-33

Good News Translation

Promises and Instructions

²⁰ “I will send an angel ahead of you to protect you as you travel and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Pay attention to him and obey him. Do not rebel against him, for I have sent him, and he will not pardon such rebellion. ²² But if you obey him and do everything I command, I will fight against all your enemies. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them. ²⁴ Do not bow down to their gods or worship them, and do not adopt their religious practices. Destroy their gods and break down their sacred stone pillars. ²⁵ If you worship me, the Lord your God, I will bless you with food and water and take away all your sicknesses. ²⁶ In your land no woman will have a miscarriage or be without children. I will give you long lives.

²⁷ “I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me; I will bring confusion among the people against whom you fight, and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you. ²⁸ I will throw your enemies into panic;^[a] I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance. ²⁹ I will not drive them out within a year's time; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you. ³⁰ Instead, I will drive them out little by little, until there are enough of you to take possession of the land. ³¹ I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance. ³² Do not make any agreement with them or with their gods. ³³ Do not let those people live in your country; if you do, they will make you sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will be a fatal trap for you.”