What Does Exodus 23:32 Mean in the King James?

Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

Exodus 23:32 · KJV

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 Hebrew word rendered “make” means “cut,” so the verse treats covenant as a bond cut into being, not a casual agreement.

THE MEANING

A covenant reaches beyond a transaction into allegiance: the bond joins the reader to the people and powers bound up in it. The verse’s prohibition names both the people and their gods.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

An agreement with people can remain neutral, untouched by the gods or loyalties attached to them.

THE ROOT

תִּכְרֹת

tikrot

GROWS FROM

כרת

cut, sever, cut off

“make” in this verse is tikrot. The Hebrew says not to “cut” a covenant, ⁨כָּרַת בְּרִית⁩ (karat berit, cut a covenant). Covenant is pictured as a bond enacted by cutting, and the prohibition reaches both the people and the gods joined to that bond.

ALSO GROWS

karat berit: cut a covenant

כָּרַת בְּרִית

The verb behind “make” gives covenant the force of an enacted bond.

nikhretah: was cut off

נִכְרְתָה

The same root can describe severance, showing that cutting can mark either a bond made or a bond ended.

THE PATTERN

Binding allegiance cannot be divided between the LORD and rival gods.

Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

Exodus 34:12 · KJVThe warning joins a covenant with the people to the danger bound up in that alliance.

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:24 · KJVThe verse names the divided allegiance that a binding covenant cannot sustain.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

1 Corinthians 10:21 · KJVSharing in one table and the other is presented as incompatible participation.

THE THREAD

In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Genesis 15:18 · KJV

Genesis uses the same “cut a covenant” expression for the LORD’s bond with Abram; Exodus forbids that same kind of bond with the people and their gods named in the verse. The shared verb presents covenant as an enacted joining, while what is joined determines the force of the act.

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