Exodus 34:15

Summary

The verse warns against making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, describing a chain of consequences: those inhabitants will prostitute themselves after their gods, sacrifice to them, invite the addressee, and the addressee will eat from their sacrifice. The Hebrew presents this as a sequence of results introduced by pen ("lest", H6435), each following action linked by ve- ("and") plus a sequential perfect verb.

Key words

• pen ("lest", H6435) — subordinating particle opening the clause; it frames everything that follows as a danger to be avoided, governing the initial verb tikhrot ("you should make", H3772H).
• tikhrot ("you should make", H3772H) — qal imperfect, second person masculine; expresses the action to be avoided (making a covenant), not yet realized.
• zanu ("they will prostitute themselves", H2181) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural; the first consequence in the chain, connected by the narrative ve- to what precedes.
• qara' ("someone will invite", H7121G) — qal sequential perfect, third person masculine singular; marks the turning point where the action shifts toward the addressee ("you") rather than the "inhabitants."
• zivcho ("his sacrifice", H2077 + H9023) — construct noun with third-person singular suffix; specifies whose sacrifice is eaten, closing the chain of consequences.

What the text says

The clause opens with pen ("lest", H6435) governing tikhrot berit ("you should make a covenant", H3772H + H1285), addressed to a singular "you" (masculine). This covenant is qualified by le-yoshev ha'aretz ("to the inhabitant of the land", H3427 + H0776G), where yoshev is a participle in construct form, literally "the one dwelling of," describing the population as residents rather than naming them.

After this initial prohibition, the Hebrew shifts into a series of verbs marked as sequential perfects, each attached by the narrative ve- ("and", H9001): zanu ("they will prostitute themselves", H2181), zavechu ("they will sacrifice", H2076), qara' ("someone will invite", H7121G), and 'akhalta ("you will eat", H0398). This grammatical chain presents the events as a continuous, unfolding sequence of consequence rather than isolated independent statements — the covenant leads to prostitution after foreign 'elohei-hem ("their gods", H0430J + H9028), which leads to sacrifice to those same gods, which leads to an invitation extended to the addressee (marked by the pronominal suffix -kha, H9031), which leads to eating from zivcho ("his sacrifice", H2077 + H9023) — the sacrifice belonging to the one who invited.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le-yoshev ha'aretz ("to the inhabitant of the land") with an added specification, τοῖς ἐνκαθημένοις πρὸς ἀλλοφύλους ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ("to those dwelling among foreigners upon the land"), introducing the notion of "foreigners" (ἀλλοφύλους) not present in the Hebrew wording. The Vulgate renders the same phrase as hominibus illarum regionum ("the men of those regions"), a more general phrasing without the participial construct sense of "dwelling" found in yoshev (H3427). The Vulgate also renders zavechu ("they will sacrifice") together with an added phrase, adoraverint simulacra eorum ("they shall have worshipped their idols"), which introduces "idols" (simulacra) not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text.