Discovery BoxExodus 34:11-13 
Context34:11 “Obey 1 what I am commanding you this day. I am going to drive out 2 before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 34:12 Be careful not to make 3 a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare 4 among you. 34:13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. 5
1 tn The covenant duties begin with this command to “keep well” what is being commanded. The Hebrew expression is “keep for you”; the preposition and the suffix form the ethical dative, adding strength to the imperative.
2 tn Again, this is the futur instans use of the participle.
3 tn The exact expression is “take heed to yourself lest you make.” It is the second use of this verb in the duties, now in the Niphal stem. To take heed to yourself means to watch yourself, be sure not to do something. Here, if they failed to do this, they would end up making entangling treaties.
4 sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.
5 tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”
sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
