Keluaran 34:23-24

34:23 At three times ¹  in the year all your men ²  must appear before the Lord God, ³  the God of Israel. 34:24 For I will drive out ⁴  the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one will covet ⁵  your land when you go up ⁶  to appear before the Lord your God three times ⁷  in the year.

[34:23]  ¹ tn “Three times” is an adverbial accusative.

[34:23]  ² tn Heb “all your males.”

[34:23]  ³ tn Here the divine name reads in Hebrew הָאָדֹן יְהוָה (ha’adon yÿhvah), which if rendered according to the traditional scheme of “Lord” for “Yahweh” would result in “Lord Lord.” A number of English versions therefore render this phrase “Lord God,” and that convention has been followed here.

[34:23]  sn The title “Lord” is included here before the divine name (translated “God” here; see Exod 23:17), perhaps to form a contrast with Baal (which means “lord” as well) and to show the sovereignty of Yahweh. But the distinct designation “the God of Israel” is certainly the point of the renewed covenant relationship.

[34:24]  ⁴ tn The verb is a Hiphil imperfect of יָרַשׁ (yarash), which means “to possess.” In the causative stem it can mean “dispossess” or “drive out.”

[34:24]  ⁵ sn The verb “covet” means more than desire; it means that some action will be taken to try to acquire the land that is being coveted. It is one thing to envy someone for their land; it is another to be consumed by the desire that stops at nothing to get it (it, not something like it).

[34:24]  ⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with a preposition and a suffixed subject to form the temporal clause.

[34:24]  ⁷ tn The expression “three times” is an adverbial accusative of time.