Passage

Exodus 34.14

Book: Exodus

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"12. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13. but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim"

"14. (for thou shalt worship no other god: for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God);"

"15. lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot after their gods, and sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16. and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods, and make thy sons play the harlot after their gods." (Exodus 34:12-16, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"12. Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the middle of you: 13. but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles;"

"14. for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

"15. “Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; 16. and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods." (Exodus 34:12-16, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"12. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: ^{images: Heb. statues}"

"14. For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:"

"15. Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16. And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods." (Exodus 34:12-16, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"12. take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land into which thou art going, lest it become a snare in thy midst; 13. for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down;"

"14. for ye do not bow yourselves to another god, for Jehovah, whose name [is] Zealous, is a zealous God."

"15. 'Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, and they have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have sacrificed to their gods, and [one] hath called to thee, and thou hast eaten of his sacrifice, 16. and thou hast taken of their daughters to thy sons, and their daughters have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have caused thy sons to go a-whoring after their gods;" (Exodus 34:12-16, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: YHWH addressing Moses on Mount Sinai, in the covenant-renewal after the Golden Calf (Ex 32-34)
Audience: Moses as covenant-mediator; through Moses, the whole assembly of Israel
Location: Mount Sinai
Time period: the wilderness era, c. 1446 BC (early-date) or c. 1260 BC (late-date)

Theological reading

Exodus 34:14 is the most structurally important divine self-naming in the [[H7065 - qana|qana]]-cluster of texts. YHWH does not merely describe Himself as qanna (jealous); He identifies Qanna as one of His names (shem), "whose name is Jealous". The naming sits in the covenant-renewal immediately after the Golden Calf episode (Ex 32-33), which functions as the canonical paradigm of covenant-adultery: Israel's just-ratified covenant violation through a metal substitute, the divine qana-response, the mediation by Moses, the partial sanction and renewed covenant. The grammar of the verse fuses two propositions: God's name is Jealous, and God is a jealous God, the attribute is not occasional or reactive but identity-defining. This naming grounds the entire OT divine-jealousy doctrine and shapes the apologetic equivocation-defeater (see H7065 - qana §"Apologetic deployment"): the biblical qana applied to God is always covenantal-protective-zeal in the marriage-covenant frame, never the insecure-envious-jealousy the New Atheist polemic projects onto it.

Key words

H7065 - qana, qana (Strong's H7065). The verbal root behind qanna (the adjective applied to God).
H7068 - qinah, qinʾah (Strong's H7068). The cognate noun; companion lexicon entry.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.