Thematic Bible: What is a snare


Thematic Bible



A fool's words bring strife, and his mouth invites fighting. A fool's mouth is his unraveling, and his lips entrap himself.

Some time later, the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and announced to Israel, "I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land that I promised to your ancestors. I had told them, "I'll never breach my covenant with you. As for you, you must not make any treaties with the inhabitants of this land. Instead, tear down their altars.' But you haven't obeyed me. What have you done? Therefore I'm now saying, "I won't expel them before you. Instead, they'll remain at your side, and their gods will ensnare you.'"

Instead, they mingled among the nations and learned their ways. They worshipped their idols, and this became a trap for them.

You are to utterly destroy everyone whom the LORD your God will deliver to you. Don't have pity on them nor serve their gods. Otherwise, they will become a snare for you." Verse ConceptsTrapEvil TrappingDo Not Have Other godsShow No Mercypity

"I'll set your borders from the Reed Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, bringing the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you are to drive them out ahead of you. You are not to make a covenant with them or with their gods. They are not to live in your land. Otherwise they will cause you to sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will become a snare for you."

Obey what I am commanding you today and I'll drive out from before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. "Be very careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, so they won't be a snare among you.

"So be very diligent to love the LORD your God, because if you ever turn back and cling to those who remain of these nations by intermarrying with them and associating one with another, know for certain that the LORD your God will not continue to drive out these nations ahead of you. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap for you, a whip to your backs, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.

It is a trap for a person to declare quickly, "This is sacred," and only later to have second thoughts about the vows. Verse ConceptsCarelessnessPromises, HumanTrapVowsVowsWorldly SnaresMaking VowsDo Not Be RashMaking DecisionsDecision Making

International Standard Version Copyright © 1996-2008 by the ISV Foundation.