Exodus 23:28

Myles Coverdale Bible

I wyll sende hornettes before ye, and dryue out the Heuytes, Cananites and Hethytes before the.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivvi, the Kana`ani, and the Hittite, from before you.

King James Version
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Lexham English Bible
And I will send the hornet before you, and it will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

New Century Version
I will send terror ahead of you that will force the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way.

New English Translation
I will send hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

Amplified Bible
"I will send hornets ahead of you which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

New American Standard Bible
"And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I will sende hornets before thee, which shal driue out the Hiuites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from thy face.

Legacy Standard Bible
And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.

Contemporary English Version
I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach.

Complete Jewish Bible
I will send hornets ahead of you to drive out the Hivi, Kena‘ani and Hitti from before you.

Darby Translation
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Easy-to-Read Version
I will send the hornet in front of you. He will force your enemies to leave. The Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites will leave your country.

English Standard Version
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

George Lamsa Translation
And I will send fierce armies before you, and will destroy the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you.

Good News Translation
I will throw your enemies into panic; I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance.

Christian Standard Bible®
I will send hornets in front of you, and they will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hethites away from you.

Literal Translation
And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

American Standard Version
And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Bible in Basic English
I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I wyll sende hornettes before thee, which shall driue out the Heuites, the Chanaanites, and the Hethites, before thee.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

King James Version (1611)
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall driue out the Hiuite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will send hornets before thee, and thou shalt cast out the Amorites and the Evites, and the Chananites and the Chettites from thee.

English Revised Version
And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Berean Standard Bible
I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and Y schal sende out bifore scrabrouns, that schulen dryue awei Euey, and Cananey, and Ethei, bifore that thou entre.

Young's Literal Translation
`And I have sent the hornet before thee, and it hath cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee;

Update Bible Version
And I will send the hornet before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee.

World English Bible
I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.

New King James Version
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.

New Living Translation
I will send terror ahead of you to drive out the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites.

New Life Bible
I will send hornets before you. They will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites before you come.

New Revised Standard
And I will send the pestilence in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I will send the hornet, before thee, - and it shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Sending out hornets before, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, before thou come in.

Revised Standard Version
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out Hivite, Canaanite, and Hittite from before you.

THE MESSAGE
"And I'll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way. I won't get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over. Little by little I'll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own. I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I'm turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.

Contextual Overview

²⁰ Beholde, I sende an angell before the, to kepe the in the waye, and to brynge the vnto the place, that I haue prepared. ²¹ Therfore bewarre of his face, and herken vnto his voyce, and anger him not, for he shall not spare youre myßdedes, & my name is in him. ²² But yf thou shalt herken vnto his voyce, and do all that I shal tell the, then wyl I be enemie vnto thy enemyes, and aduersary vnto thy aduersaries. ²³ Now wha myne angell goeth before the, & bryngeth the vnto ye Amorites, Hethites, Pheresites, Cananites, Heuites & Iebusites, & I shall haue destroyed them: ²⁴ then shalt thou not worshipe their goddes, ner serue them, nether shalt thou do as they do, but shalt ouerthrowe their goddes, & breake the downe. ²⁵ But ye LORDE yor God shal ye serue, so shal he blesse thy bred & thy water, and I wyl remoue all sicknesse from the. ²⁶ There shalbe nothinge baren ner vnfrutefull in thy londe, and I wil fulfill the nombre of thy dayes. ²⁷ I wil sende my feare before the, and sley all the people where thou comest, & will make all thine enemies to turne their backes vpo the. ²⁸ I wyll sende hornettes before ye, and dryue out the Heuytes, Cananites and Hethytes before the. ²⁹ In one yeare wyl I not cast the out before the, yt the londe become not waist, & wylde beastes multiply agaynst ye:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

hornets: Tzirâh, The hornet, may be so called from the Arabic zaraâ, to lay prostrate, strike down, because of the destruction occasioned by the violence of its sting. The hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species Crabro, of the genus Vespa or Wasp. It is a most voracious insect, and exceedingly strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length. Deuteronomy 7:20, Joshua 24:11

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 4:38 - drive Deuteronomy 6:19 - General Deuteronomy 7:1 - the Hittites Deuteronomy 31:4 - General Joshua 5:1 - Canaanites Joshua 12:8 - the Hittites Joshua 24:12 - I sent Judges 1:4 - Lord 1 Kings 9:20 - Amorites 1 Chronicles 1:13 - Heth Psalms 44:2 - how thou didst afflict Psalms 80:9 - preparedst

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I will send hornets before thee,.... Which may be interpreted either figuratively, and so may signify the same as fear before which should fall on the Canaanites upon hearing the Israelites were coming; the stings of their consciences for their sins, terrors of mind, dreading the wrath of the God of Israel, of whom they had heard, and terrible apprehensions of ruin and destruction from the Israelites: Aben Ezra interprets it of some disease of the body, which weakens it, as the leprosy, from the signification of the word, which has some affinity with that used for the leprosy; and so the Arabic version understands it of a disease: or rather, the words are to be taken literally, for hornets, which are a sort of wasps, whose stings are very penetrating and venomous; nor is it any strange or unheard of thing for people to be drove out of their countries by small animals, as mice, flies, bees, c. and particularly Aelianus q relates, that the Phaselites were drove out of their country by wasps: and Bochart r has shown that those people were of a Phoenician original, and inhabited the mountains of Solymi and that this happened to them about the times of Joshua, and so may probably be the very Canaanites here mentioned, as follow: the wasps, in Aristophanes's comedy which bears that name, are introduced speaking of themselves, and say, no creature when provoked is more angry and troublesome than we are s:

which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee; which three are mentioned instead of the rest, or because they were more especially infested and distressed with the hornets, and drove out of their land by means of them.

q Hist. Animal. l. 11. c. 28. r Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 13. col. 541. s Aristoph. Vespae, p. 510.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hornets - Compare the marginal references. The word is used figuratively for a cause of terror and discouragement. Bees are spoken of in the like sense, Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalms 118:12.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 23:28. I will send hornets before thee — הצרעה hatstsirah. The root is not found in Hebrew, but it may be the same with the Arabic [Arabic] saraa, to lay prostrate, to strike down; the hornet, probably so called from the destruction occasioned by the violence of its sting. The hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species crabro, of the genus vespa or wasp; it is a most voracious insect, and is exceedingly strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length, though I have seen some an inch and a half long, and so strong that, having caught one in a small pair of forceps, it repeatedly escaped by using violent contortions, so that at last I was obliged to abandon all hopes of securing it alive, which I wished to have done. How distressing and destructive a multitude of these might be, any person may conjecture; even the bees of one hive would be sufficient to sting a thousand men to madness, but how much worse must wasps and hornets be! No armour, no weapons, could avail against these. A few thousands of them would be quite sufficient to throw the best disciplined army into confusion and rout. From Joshua 24:12, we find that two kings of the Amorites were actually driven out of the land by these hornets, so that the Israelites were not obliged to use either sword or bow in the conquest.