Exodus 34:11

Summary

The verse opens with a command to keep what is being commanded "this day," followed by a divine declaration introduced by hinneh ("behold/here I am") that the speaker is in the process of driving out seven named peoples from before the addressee. The structure moves from imperative instruction to a present/imminent-action announcement.

Key words

• she.Mar ("observe", H8104G) — qal imperative, a direct command form addressed to a single male addressee.
• me.tza.ve.Kha ("[am] commanding you", H6680 + H9031) — piel participle with pronominal suffix; the participle frames the commanding as an ongoing or characteristic action ("the one commanding you") rather than a simple past command.
• hi.Ni ("here I am / behold", H2005 + H9040) — interjection with 1st-person suffix, a common construction introducing an immediate, vivid declaration by the speaker.
• go.Resh ("[am] about to drive out", H1644G) — qal participle, again marking the action as presently unfolding or imminent, paired with hinneh to give a sense of "I am now driving out."
• pa.Nei.kha ("before you", H6440G + H9021) — plural construct noun with suffix, literally "the faces of you," an idiom for "your presence."

What the text says

The verse contains two clauses linked by the temporal marker ha.Yom ("this day", H3117L). The first is a direct command: she.Mar ("observe") governs the relative clause 'a.Sher 'a.no.Khi me.tza.ve.Kha ("that which I am commanding you"), where the piel participle me.tza.ve casts the commanding as an action tied to the speaker's identity ("I am the one commanding") rather than a completed act.

The second clause begins with hi.Ni ("here I am"), a construction that in Biblical Hebrew often introduces a vivid, present-tense declaration from the speaker's own mouth. It is followed by the qal participle go.Resh ("driving out"), which together with hi.Ni produces a sense of an action in progress or about to happen, rather than a simple future prediction. The object of this driving-out is marked by 'et (the untranslated direct object marker) and consists of six gentilic names — Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, Jebusite — each preceded by the definite article ha and joined by the conjunction ve ("and"), presenting them as a fixed list of peoples situated "before your face" (mi.pa.Nei.kha).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and Vulgate list six peoples (Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, Jebusite), matching the word-by-word data. The LXX (Swete text given here) lists seven names — adding Γεργεσαῖον (Girgashite) between Εὑαῖον and Ἰεβουσαῖον — a name not present in the Hebrew word list provided. The LXX also renders the opening command more generally as "πρόσεχε σὺ πάντα ὅσα" ("pay attention to all that"), broadening the scope compared to the Hebrew's more compact she.Mar-le.Kha 'et 'a.Sher ("observe for yourself that which").