They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Not to allow idolaters to dwell in the land of Israel
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
לֹא יֵשְׁבוּ בְּאַרְצְךָ פֶּן יַחֲטִיאוּ אֹתְךָ לִי כִּי תַעֲבֹד אֶת־אֱלֹהֵיהֶם כִּי־יִהְיֶה לְךָ לְמוֹקֵשׁ
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
הזהירנו מהושיב עובדי ע"ז בארצנו כדי שלא נלמוד כפירותם, באמרו לא ישבו בארצכם פן יחטיאו וגו', ואילו רצה העכו"ם לעמוד בארצנו אינו מותר לנו עד שקבל עליו שלא לעבוד ע"ז ואולם עובדי ע"ז לא ישכנו עמנו ולא נמכור להם נחלה ולא נשכיר להם בית, ובבאור אמרו לנו הפירוש לא תתן להם חנייה בקרקע. (ואלה המשפטים, שם):
He prohibited us from settling idol worshippers in our land, so that we not learn their heresy, with His saying, "They shall not dwell in your land lest they cause [you] to sin, etc." (Exodus 23:33). And if an idolator wants to remain in our land, it is only allowed when he accepts upon himself not to worship idols. However idol worshippers may not dwell with us [in the Land of Israel], nor may we sell them a holding nor may we rent them a house. And in the explanation (Avodah Zarah 20a), they told us, "Do not give them an encampment in the land." (See Parashat Mishpatim; Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations 10.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a prohibition
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Recorded as practiced today
- Binding in the land of Israel
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
- Lashes (malkot)
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding, with modification
- Conservative Kept as an ethical principle
- Reform Rejected
- Reconstructionist Rejected
- Karaite Position not stated
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls)
- CD XII reinterpreted it Damascus Document separation-from-gentiles halakhah broadly extends the biblical impulse toward segregation; not a securely attested reinterpretation of Exod 23:33 specifically
Rabbinic aggadah
- Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Kaspa (Mishpatim 20) expanded it homiletically
Josephus
- Ant. 4.191-193 expanded it homiletically General Mosaic valedictory exhortation against association with foreign nations and their cults; a thematic parallel rather than a direct exposition of Exod 23:33
The New Testament
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 read it spiritually Pauline 'be not unequally yoked / come out from among them' redeploys separation rhetoric in terms of believers vs. unbelievers rather than territorial residence
Beside the older legal codes of its world
The commandment set beside the ancient Near-Eastern legal collections scholars compare it to — a descriptive comparison, not a claim of dependence.
- neo assyrian vassal treaties Neo-Assyrian vassal treaty stipulations demand exclusion of persons loyal to rival powers from the vassal's territory, providing structural parallel to the Deuteronomic ban on letting Canaanite residents remain in the land Relationship to the parallel: shared formulary SAA 2 no. 6 (Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty), stipulations on prohibited allegiances and exclusion of disloyal persons Parpola and Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (SAA 2, 1988)
- hittite vassal treaties Hittite suzerainty treaty stipulations prohibiting the vassal from harboring refugees or fugitives loyal to enemy powers, structurally analogous to the ban on Canaanite residence as a vector of competing religious loyalty Relationship to the parallel: shared formulary Stipulations (e.g., Treaty of Mursili II with Duppi-Teshub, §§3-5) Beckman, Hittite Diplomatic Texts, 2nd ed. (SBL, 1999)
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
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Article 13
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
UDHR Article 13 guarantees everyone the right to freedom of movement and residence within states and the right to leave and return; the commandment bars a defined religious group from residing within a specified territory solely on grounds of religious practice.
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Article 12
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
ICCPR Article 12 protects the right to choose one's residence and the liberty of movement; the commandment mandates territorial exclusion of persons defined exclusively by their religious identity, constituting discrimination on religious grounds in access to residence.
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general principle
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
The commandment makes territorial residence rights contingent on religious affiliation, excluding practitioners of non-Yahwistic religions from the land entirely; the principle of religious freedom holds that civil and territorial rights may not be conditioned on religious belief or practice.