Bible Strands
Exodus 23:27
I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Israel regarding the conquest of Canaan, promising divine intervention to secure their path and settle the land.
The words — The Hebrew אֵימָתִי ('ei.ma.T/i) translates literally as "my terror," denoting a divinely instigated dread that precedes the Israelite advance.
The thread — This motif of God-sent fear appears in Genesis 35:5, where terror falls on surrounding cities to halt Jacob’s pursuers, and in Deuteronomy 2:25 and Deuteronomy 7:23, where dread and confusion are repeatedly pledged to Israel’s enemies.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Israel’s military success depends entirely on Yahweh’s active intervention, not human strategy. It requires the reader to accept divine sovereignty over historical conflict without romanticizing the violence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 2:25 This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. They will hear the reports of you and tremble in anguish because of you.”
- Genesis 35:5 As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.
- Deuteronomy 7:23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.
- Deuteronomy 11:25 No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.
- Exodus 15:14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.
- Psalms 18:40 You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.
- Deuteronomy 11:23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.
- 1 Samuel 14:15 Then panic struck the Philistines in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. Even those in the outposts and raiding parties trembled. Indeed, the earth quaked, and panic spread from God.
- 2 Kings 7:6 For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.”
- 2 Chronicles 14:14 and attacked all the cities around Gerar, because the terror of the LORD had fallen upon them. They plundered all the cities, since there was much plunder there.