Numbers 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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Numbers 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 Ezekiel 28:24. Joshua intimates the same to them before he died, Numbers 23:13. Of this also an angel puts them in mind, Jdg 2:3. And so it came to pass, as we read there, (Numbers 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, (Titus 2:14,) might sanctify and cleanse his church, and render it without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, Ephesians 5:26-27. And God promises, by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

33:50-56 Now that they were to pass over Jordan, they were entering again into temptation to follow idols; and they are threatened that, if they spared either the idols or the idolaters, their sin would certainly be their punishment. They would foster vipers in their own bosoms. The remnant of the Canaanites, if they made any peace with them, though but for a time, would be pricks in their eyes, and thorns in their sides. We must expect trouble and affliction from whatever sin we indulge; that which we are willing should tempt us, will vex us. It was intended that the Canaanites should be put out of the land; but if the Israelites learned their wicked ways, they also would be put out. Let us hear this and fear. If we do not drive out sin, sin will drive us out. If we are not the death of our lusts, our lusts will be the death of our souls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The expulsion of the Canaanites and the destruction of their monuments of idolatry had been already enjoined (see the marginal references); and Numbers 33:54 is substantially a repetition from Exodus 26:53-55. But the solemn warning of Numbers 33:55-56 is new. A call for it had been furnished by their past transgressions in the matter of Baal-peor, and by their imperfect fulfillment, at the first, of Moses' orders in the Midianite war.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

55. 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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Pricks in your eyes, i.e. both vexatious and pernicious, for the eye is a tender part, and a wound there is very mischievous.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you,.... Should be remiss and careless about it, and indifferent to it, and not make use of the proper means to get rid of them, but, on the contrary, make covenants with them, and intermarry among them; or, however, become friendly to them, and suffer them to dwell among them:

then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them; sparing their lives, and permitting them to dwell among them:

shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides; which figurative expressions show that they should be very troublesome and distressing to them, even in their most tender and nearest concerns, and dearest relations, and which are explained and more properly expressed as follows:

and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell; among other things by their wicked conversation, and by drawing them into sin through their ill examples, and so bring the displeasure of God upon them, and punishment for their evil doings.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

55. as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides] Cf. Joshua 23:13, Ezekiel 28:24, and perhaps Jdg 2:3.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 55. - If ye will not drive out the inhabitants. As was in fact the case (Judges 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 Joshua 23:13 we have "scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes," which sounds somewhat more artificial. In Judges 2:3, where this warning is quoted, the figure is not expressed at all: "they shall be in your sides." Numbers 33:55

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The command to divide the land by lot among the families is partly a verbal repetition of Numbers 26:53-56. וגו לו יצא אל־אשׁר: literally, "into that, whither the lot comes out to him, shall be to him" (i.e., to each family); in other words, it is to receive that portion of land to which the lot that comes out of the urn shall point it. "According to the tribes of your fathers:" see at Numbers 26:55. - The command closes in Numbers 33:55, Numbers 33:56, with the threat, that if they did not exterminate the Canaanites, not only would such as were left become "thorns in their eyes and stings in their sides," i.e., inflict the most painful injuries upon them, and make war upon them in the land; but Jehovah would also do the very same things to the Israelites that He had intended to do to the Canaanites, i.e., drive them out of the land and destroy them. This threat is repeated by Joshua in his last address to the assembled congregation (Joshua 23:13).