What Does Exodus 34:11 Mean in the King James?

Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

Exodus 34:11 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Here “observe” means guard what is commanded, while “behold” introduces an expulsion the speaker is actively carrying out.

THE MEANING

You are addressed with a command to guard what is commanded today, alongside a declaration that the speaker is driving named peoples out from before you. The verse names the Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite, and presents their expulsion plainly; the command to keep does not make that violence disappear.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the thin reading of “observe” as merely looking: the word carries the sense of guarding and keeping.

THE ROOT

שְׁמָר־לְךָ

shemar-lekha

GROWS FROM

שׁמר

sh-m-r

Keep, watch over, guard.

English “observe” can sound like looking, but ⁨שָׁמַר⁩ (shamar, “keep, guard”) means keeping watch over or preserving. The command places what is spoken into your keeping; it asks for more than notice.

ALSO GROWS

shomer: Keeper, guardian, or watchman.

שֹׁמֵר

This branch makes the active watchfulness inside “observe” visible.

mishmeret: Charge, guard duty, or keeping.

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

A command can become a charge entrusted to someone to keep.

גֹרֵשׁ

goresh

GROWS FROM

גרש

g-r-sh

Drive away, expel, force out.

The verse describes the expulsion as action in progress. ⁨גָּרַשׁ⁩ (garash, “drive out”) names forceful removal from a place, so the text’s declaration concerns the named peoples’ physical displacement, not an interior metaphor.

ALSO GROWS

vaygaresh: And he drove out.

וַיְגָרֶשׁ

This form describes expulsion from a place in Genesis 3:24, preserving the root’s force of removal.

agarēsh: I will drive out.

אֲגָרֵשׁ

This form of the same root appears in Exodus 23:30, where the expulsion is described as unfolding by degrees.

THE PATTERN

Across Torah, Gospel, and letter, keeping a command means carrying it into action rather than merely noticing it.

Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.

Deuteronomy 6:17 · KJVThe verse joins keeping watch over the commands with the commands the LORD has given.

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 14:15 · KJVKeeping a command is presented as something expressed in action.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

1 John 2:3 · KJVKeeping the commands becomes the lived expression of knowing.

THE THREAD

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Exodus 23:30 · KJV

The same ⁨גָּרַשׁ⁩ (garash, “drive out”) root names the expulsion in both verses. Here its pace is made explicit, “by little and little”, so the forceful displacement is shown as unfolding over time.

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