Exodus 23:33

Summary

Exodus 23:33 warns that if the inhabitants of the land are allowed to remain, they will cause the addressee to sin against God, specifically through serving their gods, and this will become a trap. The verse chains three subordinate clauses (pen, ki, ki) building a sequence of cause and consequence.

Key words

• yeshevu ("they will dwell", H3427) — Qal imperfect, negated by lo' (H3808), forming a prohibition: "they shall not dwell."
• yachati'u ("they should cause to sin", H2398) — Hiphil imperfect, the causative stem turns the root "to sin" into "to cause [someone] to sin," with the people (not the addressee) as subject.
• ta'avod ("you will serve", H5647H) — Qal imperfect, second person, describing the addressee's own future action of service to foreign gods.
• yihyeh ("it will become", H1961) — Qal imperfect of the verb "to be," here functioning to introduce a resulting state, "it will become."
• moqesh ("a snare", H4170) — masculine singular noun, the concrete image (a trap for catching animals) used metaphorically for the final outcome.

What the text says

The sentence opens with a negated imperfect, lo' yeshevu ("they will not dwell," H3808 + H3427), stating a prohibition against the peoples remaining "in your land" (be'artzekha, H0776G with 2ms suffix). This is followed by a pen ("lest," H6435) clause introducing a feared outcome: yachati'u 'otekha li — "they will cause you to sin, to me" (H2398 Hiphil + H0853 + H9021 suffix + li, H9030 "to me"). The Hiphil stem is significant: the grammatical subject of "causing sin" is the foreign inhabitants, not the addressee himself, even though the addressee is the one who sins.

Two consecutive ki clauses (H3588A, capable of meaning "for," "if," or "that") follow, each introduced separately: ki ta'avod 'et-'elohei-hem ("for/if you will serve their gods," H5647H + H0430J construct + H9028 suffix), and ki yihyeh lekha lemoqesh ("for/if it will become to you as a snare," H1961 + double preposition le + H4170). Because ki is ambiguous between causal and conditional force, the Hebrew allows the clauses to be read either as a causal chain ("...lest they make you sin against me, for you will serve their gods, for it will become a snare to you") or as embedded conditionals. The double ki structure creates a cumulative buildup toward the final noun moqesh, "snare," which closes the verse as the named consequence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders pen with ἵνα μὴ ("so that not"), a purpose construction, while the Vulgate uses ne forte ("lest perhaps"), adding a nuance of possibility not explicit in the Hebrew particle. The LXX also restructures the second ki clause as a conditional (ἐὰν γὰρ, "for if"), and translates moqesh as πρόσκομμα ("stumbling block") rather than the trap/snare imagery of the Hebrew term. The Spanish SBLIBRE translation reorders the logical sequence, presenting the serving of foreign gods as the cause and the "making you sin" as the effect, reversing the order in which the Hebrew clauses appear.