Exodus 23:32 Meaning: Why No Covenant with Them?

The word for “make” here is the Hebrew karat, literally, “to cut.” In the ancient world, making a covenant meant cutting an animal in two and walking between the pieces. It was a pledge of life-and-death loyalty. The noun berit (“covenant”) is that solemn bond, not a casual handshake. To cut a covenant with the Canaanites would treat them as allies and, by extension, honor their gods. The word elohim (here “gods”) is the same term used for the Lord Himself. The warning is clear: do not give the loyalty that belongs to God alone to any other being. This command guards the heart of the covenant relationship, exclusive devotion to the One who delivered them from Egypt.

Christians have read this verse with a common concern for protecting exclusive loyalty to God. Reformed commentators like Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke stress the spiritual danger: the Canaanites were deeply entrenched in idolatry, and Israel was prone to wander. Any alliance, even a political one, would become a snare. The Geneva Bible notes concur that this is about safeguarding the purity of worship. Others, such as the Cambridge Bible, point to the historical context of gradual conquest and see this command as a moral boundary rather than a call for total isolation. Gill extends “covenant” to include marriage, which Scripture elsewhere forbids with unbelievers. Across traditions, the underlying lesson is the same: our close bonds shape our hearts, and God calls us to guard our primary allegiance to Him.

Some readers take this verse to mean that Christians should avoid all contact with people who do not share their faith. In fact, the prohibition is specifically about making a covenant, a formal, binding agreement that would have included promises of mutual protection and implied acceptance of pagan gods. The same book of Exodus commands Israel to treat the foreigner living among them with kindness (Exodus 22:21). The danger was not proximity but partnership that divided loyalty.

This verse asks you to look at the bonds you are forming. Not every friendship is a covenant, but some relationships carry deeper commitments, a business partnership, a close friendship that pulls you away from your values, a social group that demands your wholehearted loyalty. This week, consider one relationship or commitment that may be pulling your heart in two directions. You do not need to cut off every person who does not share your faith, but you may need to loosen a tie that has become a binding agreement. And on the other side, take time to reaffirm the covenant you already have with God, the one He cut for you in Christ.