Exodus 33:2

2 I will send an angel ahead of you and will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites,^[a] Hivites, and Jebusites.

Exodus 33:2 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 33:2

And I will send an angel before thee
Not the angel before promised, ( Exodus 23:20 ) the Angel of his presence, the eternal Word and Son of God, but a created angel; and so Aben Ezra observes, he does not say the Angel that was known, that his name was in him; though even this was to be looked upon as a favour, and showed that he had not utterly cast them off:

and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite,
the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite;
who were now the inhabitants of the land, and these he promises drive out, to make way for their possession of it; and that "by his hand", as the Targum of Jonathan interprets it, by the hand of the angel. Only six nations are mentioned, though there were seven; the Girgashite is omitted, but added in the Septuagint version.

Exodus 33:2 In-Context

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: "Go, leave here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your offspring.

2 I will send an angel ahead of you and will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

3 [Go up] to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way."

4 When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and didn't put on their jewelry.

5 For the Lord said to Moses: "Tell the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. If I went with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you."

Footnotes

• [a]. Sam, LXX include Girgashites