“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell.
Parallel Translations
-
“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell.
-
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
-
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Numbers 33:55 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 2:3 Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”
- Psalms 106:34-36 They didn’t destroy the peoples, as Yahweh commanded them, but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works. They served their idols, which became a snare to them.
- Deuteronomy 7:16 You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you.
- Joshua 23:12-13 “But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.
- Exodus 23:33 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.”
- Deuteronomy 7:4 For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
- Judges 1:21-36 The children of Benjamin didn’t drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and Yahweh was with them. The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city before that was Luz.) The watchers saw a man come out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” He showed them the entrance into the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go. The man went into the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day. Manasseh didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. When Israel had grown strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out. Ephraim didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Zebulun didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. Asher didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob; but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they didn’t drive them out. Naphtali didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anath became subject to forced labor. The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor. The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
- Ezekiel 28:24 “ ‘ “There will be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them that scorned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, knives.
Or, knives.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 33:55 But if ye will not drive out…
Num 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them [shall be] pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
Ver. 55. Shall be pricks in your eyes.] The eye is the tenderest part, and soon vexed with the least mote that falls into it. These Jebusites preserved, should be notorious mischiefs to them; as the Jesuits at this day are to those Christian states that harbour them. Shall we suffer those vipers to lodge in our bosoms till they eat out our hearts? Sic notus Ulysses? Jesuits, like bells, will never be well tuned till well hanged. Among much change of houses in foreign parts, they have in France two famous for the accordance of their names, the one called the Bow at Nola, the other the Arrow, la Fleche, given them by Henry IV, whom afterwards they villanously stabbed to death. Their apostate Ferrier played upon them in this distitch: -
Read full note →
“ Arcum Nola dedit, dedit illis alma sagttram
Gallia; quis funem, quem meruere, dabit! ”
“Nola the bow, and France the shaft did bring;
But who shall help them to a hempen string?”
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Pricks in your eyes, i.e. both vexatious and pernicious,…
Pricks in your eyes, i.e. both vexatious and pernicious, for the eye is a tender part, and a wound there is very mischievous.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 55. Shall be pricks in your eyes] Under…
Verse 55. Shall be pricks in your eyes] Under these metaphors, the continual mischief that should be done to them, both in soul and body, by these idolaters, is set forth in a very expressive manner. What can be more vexatious than a continual goading of each side, so that the attempt to avoid the one throws the body more forcibly on the other? And what can be more distressing than a continual pricking in the eye, harassing the mind, tormenting the body, and extinguishing the sight?
1. IT has been usual among pious men to consider these Canaanites remaining in the land, as emblems of indwelling sin; and it must be granted that what those remaining Canaanites were to the people of Israel, who were disobedient to God, such is indwelling sin to all those who will not have the blood of the covenant to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. For a time, while conscience is tender, such persons feel themselves straitened in all their goings, hindered in all their religious services, and distressed beyond measure because of the law-the authority and power of sin, which they find warring in their members: by and by the eye of their mind becomes obscured by the constant piercings of sin, till at last, fatally persuaded that sin must dwell in them as long as they live, they accommodate their minds to their situation, their consciences cease to be tender, and they content themselves with expecting redemption where and when it has never been promised, viz., beyond the grave! On the subject of the journeyings of the Israelites, the following observations from old Mr. Ainsworth cannot fail to interest the reader.
Read full note →
2. "The TRAVELS of Israel through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, De 8:15, which was a land of deserts, and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt, Jer 2:6, signified the many troubles and afflictions through which we must enter into the kingdom of God, Ac 14:22. The helps, comforts, and deliverances which God gave unto his people in their distresses, are examples of his love and mercy towards his followers; for he comforts them in all their tribulation, that as the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also abounds in Christ, 2Co 1:5. The punishments which God inflicted upon the disobedient, who perished in the wilderness for their sins, happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come, 1Co 10:1-11; Heb 3:17-19; Heb 4:1-2. By the names of their encamping places, and histories adjoined, it appears how Israel came sometimes into straits and troublesome ways, as at Pihahiroth, Ex 14:2-3; Ex 14:10, c. and at Zalmonah, Nu 2:1; Nu 2:4, c. sometimes into large and ample room, as at the plains of Moab; sometimes to places of hunger and thirst, as at Rephidim and Kadesh, Ex 16:1-3; Ex 17:1-3; Nu 20:2-5; sometimes to places of refreshing, as at Elim and Beer, Ex 15:27; Nu 21:16; sometimes where they had wars, as at Rephidim, Kadesh, Edrei, Ex 17:8; Nu 21:1; Nu 21:33; sometimes where they had rest, as at Mount Sinai: sometimes they went right forward, as from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea; sometimes they turned backward, as from Kadesh-barnea to the Red Sea: sometimes they came to mountains, as Sinai, Shapher, Hor-Gidgad; sometimes to valleys, as Tahath, c. sometimes to places of bitterness, as Marah; sometimes, of sweetness, as Mithcah.
3. "The SINS which they committed in the wilderness were many and great; as open IDOLATRY by the calf, at Horeb, Num 32:3; Num 32:4, and with Baal-peor, Nu 25:16-18. UNBELIEF, at Kadesh, Nu 14:11; and afterwards PRESUMPTUOUS BOLDNESS in the same place; MURMURING against God sundry times, with tempting of Christ, (as the apostle speaks, 1Co 10:9) CONTENTION and REBELLION against their governors often; lusting for flesh to fill their appetites, and loathing manna, the heavenly food; WHOREDOM with the daughters of Moab, and many other provocations; so that this complaint is after made of them, How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Ps 78:40. All sorts of persons sinned against God; the multitude of people very often; the mixed multitude of strangers among them, Nu 11:4-6. The princes, as the ten spies, Dathan, Abiram, c. The Levites, as Korah and his company Miriam the prophetess, Nu 12:1-2; Aaron the priest with her, besides his sin at Horeb, Ex 32:1-4; and at the water of Meribah, Nu 20:24. Moses also himself at the same place, for which he was excluded from the land of Canaan.
4. "The PUNISHMENTS laid on them by the Lord for their disobedience were many. They died by the sword of the enemy, as of the Amalekites, Ex 17:9-11, and of the Canaanites, Nu 14:45; and some by the sword of their brethren, Ex 32:25-29 Some were burned with fire, Nu 11:1; Nu 16:35; some died with surfeit, Nu 11:34; some were swallowed up alive in the earth, Nu 16:31-34; some were killed with serpents, Nu 21:6; many died of the pestilence, Nu 16:46, and Nu 5:25; and generally all that generation which were first mustered, after their coming out of Egypt, perished, Nu 26:64-65. God consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror, Ps 78:33.
5. "Nevertheless, for his name's sake, he magnified his MERCIES unto them and their posterity. He had divided the sea, and led them through on dry land, drowning their enemies, Ex 14:27-28. He led them with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, continually. He gave them manna from heaven daily. He clave the rock, and gave them water for their thirst. He fed them with quails, when they longed for flesh. He sweetened the bitter waters. He saved them from the sword of their enemies. He delivered them from the fiery serpents and scorpions. Their raiment waxed not old upon them, neither did their foot swell for forty years, De 8:4. He delivered them from the intended curse of Balaam, and turned it into a blessing, because he loved them, Nu 22:13; Nu 22:38; De 23:5. He came down from Mount Sinai, and spake with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and gave also his good Spirit to instruct them, Neh 9:13; Neh 9:20. In the times of his wrath he remembered mercy; his eye spared them from destroying them, neither did he make an end of them in the wilderness, Eze 20:17; Eze 20:22. He gave them kingdoms and nations, and they possessed the lands of their enemies; and he multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land promised unto their forefathers. Neh 9:22-9:23. Now whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope, Ro 15:4." Let him that readeth understand."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Num 33:55. If ye will not drive out the…
Num 33:55. If ye will not drive out the inhabitants — Those of them whom ye suffer to remain in the land through your cowardice, slothfulness, or friendship toward them, shall be a great plague to you, and bring sore calamities upon you; see Eze 28:24. Joshua intimates the same to them before he died, Num 23:13. Of this also an angel puts them in mind, Jdg 2:3. And so it came to pass, as we read there, (Num 33:14,) and throughout that whole book. Shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides — Both vexatious and pernicious. Whosoever, by neglecting, through the Spirit, (to be sought by prayer,) to mortify the deeds of the body, and to crucify the flesh, with its sinful lusts, shall permit sinful tempers and desires to remain in his heart, will one day find by experience that these evil dispositions will be to his soul what the ancient inhabitants of Canaan were to the Israelites; they will be as pricks in his eyes, and thorns in his flesh — A continual source of trouble and vexation, depriving him of true peace and comfort. But is it our privilege to be delivered from these corrupt passions and inclinations? Certainly it is, as much as it was the privilege of the Israelites to be delivered from the Canaanites. For Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, (Tit 2:14,) might sanctify and cleanse his church, and render it without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, Eph 5:26-27. And God promises, by Ezekiel, (Eze 36:25,) From all your filthiness and idols will I cleanse you. And faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it for all those that earnestly call upon, firmly confide in, and perseveringly seek him in the way he has appointed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Nails. Septuagint, "goads," &c., by which they will force…
Nails. Septuagint, "goads," &c., by which they will force you in a manner to gratify your curiosity, by an imitation of their idol worship; and thus will prove to you more dangerous, than if you had nails piercing your eyes. See Josue xxiii. 13., and Ezechiel xxviii. 24. These abandoned nations must not be spared through a false pity, Deuteronomy xx. 16. (Calmet) --- The Israelites, however, proved negligent, and God made use of the remains of these nations to scourge his people, and to train them for war. (Du Hamel)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants…
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you--No associations were to be formed with the inhabitants; otherwise, "if ye let remain, they will be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides"--that is, they would prove troublesome and dangerous neighbors, enticing to idolatry, and consequently depriving you of the divine favor and blessing. The neglect of the counsel against union with the idolatrous inhabitants became fatal to them. This earnest admonition given to the Israelites in their peculiar circumstances conveys a salutary lesson to us to allow no lurking habits of sin to remain in us. That spiritual enemy must be eradicated from our nature; otherwise it will be ruinous to our present peace and future salvation.
Next: Numbers Chapter 34
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 55. If ye will not drive out, etc. —…
55. If ye will not drive out, etc. — If Israel should be perversely disobedient, Jehovah threatens to withdraw from them his help. Exo_23:22-23.
Pricks in your eyes — Joshua, (Num_23:13,) in repeating this, says, “scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes,” and adds, “they shall be snares and traps unto you.” These strong metaphors portray the infliction of the most painful injuries by the un-exterminated Canaanites.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 55. as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns…
55. as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides] Cf. Jos_23:13, Eze_28:24, and perhaps Jdg_2:3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain If ye will not drive out the inhabitants. As…
If ye will not drive out the inhabitants. As was in fact the case. (Jud_1:1) The warning is here given for the first time, because the danger was now near at hand, and had indeed already shown itself in the matter of the Midianitish women and children. Pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides. Natural symbols of dangerous annoyances. Possibly the thickets which fringe the Jordan supplied them with present examples. In Jos_23:13 we have "scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes," which sounds somewhat more artificial. In Jud_1:2:3, where this warning is quoted, the figure is not expressed at all: "they shall be in your sides."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues telling Moses what the people must do.
Read full note →
like objects in your eyes and thorns in your sides
Just like a small object in a person's eye or a small thorn that sticks into a person skin can cause great irritation, so even a small portion of the Canaanites, if left in the land, would cause great trouble for the Israelites. (See: Simile)
translationWords
cast out
people group
thorn
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 33:55-56 Israel failed to carry out God’s instructions (33:51-53)…
33:55-56 Israel failed to carry out God’s instructions (33:51-53) and suffered the consequences predicted here (see Judg 1:1–2:5; 2:11–3:6). Israel’s enemies in the period of the judges were like splinters and thorns (Num 33:55), harassing them militarily and spiritually (cp. 2 Cor 12:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.