Exodus 34:24

Summary

The verse gives a conditional assurance: because Yehovah will dispossess nations and enlarge Israel's territory, no one will covet the land while the men travel to appear before Yehovah three times a year. It functions as a rationale for the pilgrimage-festival law stated in the surrounding verses.

Key words

• 'oRish ("I will dispossess", H3423H) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, first person: Yehovah himself causes the nations to be dispossessed, not Israel acting alone.
• hirchavTi ("I will enlarge", H7337) — hiphil sequential perfect, continuing the action begun by 'oRish; the sequential form links this act as a direct continuation/consequence of the dispossession.
• yachMod ("he will covet", H2530A) — qal imperfect, third person singular, with the negation lo' ("not", H3808): a general future prohibition-like statement, not an imperative.
• ra'Ot ("present yourself" / "to be seen", H7200G) — niphal infinitive construct (passive/reflexive of "to see"): the subject does not simply "see" but "is seen" — appears before someone.
• penei Yehovah 'eloheiKha ("presence of Yehovah your God", H6440G + H3068G + H0430G) — construct chain; panim ("face") in construct governs the divine name, expressing appearance "before the face of" Yehovah.

What the text says

The verse opens with the subordinating particle ki ("for/if", H3588A), introducing the causal or conditional basis for the preceding command to attend the three annual appearances. The first clause uses 'oRish ("I will dispossess", H3423H), a hiphil imperfect placing Yehovah as the causative agent of the nations' (goYim, H1471A) removal "from before you" (miPanei-kha, H6440G + H9021, literally "from the face of you"). The narrative vav on hirchavTi ("I will enlarge", H7337) marks this as a sequential perfect, continuing the same divine action into territorial expansion of "your border" (gevuleKha, H1366G construct + suffix).

The second half shifts to the human consequence: lo' yachMod ("he will not covet", H3808 + H2530A) uses a qal imperfect for a general future state — no man ('ish, H0376I) will covet "your land" ('artzeKha, H0776G construct + suffix). This is temporally bound by the infinitive construct clauses introduced by ba ("when", H9003) and le ("to", H9005): ba'aloteKha ("in your going up", H5927G infinitive) and lera'Ot ("to be seen/present yourself", H7200G niphal infinitive). The niphal form of ra'ah ("to see") is notable: the worshiper is grammatically the one "seen," not the one "seeing," before penei Yehovah 'eloheiKha ("the presence/face of Yehovah your God"). The clause closes with the numeral shaLosh pe'aMim ("three times", H7969 + H6471) and ba-shaNah ("in the year", H9003 + H8141), specifying frequency.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lera'Ot with ὀφθῆναι ("to be seen"), matching the niphal (passive) sense of the Hebrew ra'Ot. The Vulgate's apparente ("appearing") likewise preserves this passive/reflexive nuance. The Hebrew 'ish ("anyone", H0376I, singular) is rendered by the LXX as οὐδεὶς ("no one") and by the Vulgate as nullus ("no one"), both generalizing the singular noun into a universal negative pronoun.