What Does Exodus 23:29 Mean in the King James?
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The danger is not only what remains in the land, but the vacancy left when people are driven out too quickly.
THE MEANING
The promise is a paced but explicit expulsion: the people before you are driven out, not in one year, because sudden vacancy would leave the land desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you. The verse presents that timing as protection for your habitation; it does not name protection for those expelled.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that immediate, complete removal automatically makes a place safe: the verse names vacancy itself as a danger.
THE ROOT
אֲגָרְשֶׁנּוּ
agarshennu
GROWS FROM
גרש
to drive out, expel, or cast away
“drive them out” in this verse is agarshennu. This root names forceful expulsion; Hebrew uses a form from the same root for a woman put away from her husband. English “drive out” can sound like clearing an obstacle, while the root keeps the human act of casting people out in view, even as the verse limits its pace.
ALSO GROWS
agarshennu: I will drive him or them out
אֲגָרְשֶׁנּוּ
This is the verse’s own form of the root, naming the promised expulsion directly.
gerushah: A woman put away from her husband
גְּרוּשָׁה
The same root can name a forced separation from a household, showing the weight carried by “drive out.”
שְׁמָמָה
shemamah
GROWS FROM
שמם
to be desolate, devastated, or laid waste
“desolate” in this verse is shemamah. The land does not become simply empty; it becomes waste. The verse places that ruined condition beside the multiplying wild animals, so vacancy itself is part of the danger.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To become desolate or be laid waste
שָׁמֵם
The verb shows desolation as a condition the land enters, not merely a space without people.
shemamah: Desolation or waste
שְׁמָמָה
This noun names the threatened state of the land if the expulsion happens all at once.
THE PATTERN
When a place is cleared faster than it can be inhabited, the vacancy can become a condition for danger to multiply.
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.THE THREAD
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.“Drove out” translates the same root, גרש (garash), that names the expulsion in Exodus. In Genesis the human is driven out of the garden; here people are driven from the land in stages, and the timing determines whether the opened space remains habitable.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us