Exodus 33:2

2 And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the 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 And Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your offspring.'

2 And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,

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

4 And the people heard this troubling word, and they mourned, and they each did not put their ornaments on themselves.

5 And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to the {Israelites}, 'You [are] a stiff-necked people; [if] one moment I were to go up among you, I would destroy you. And now take down your ornaments from on you, and I will {decide} what I will do to you."

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "Canaanite"
• [b]. Hebrew "Amorite"
• [c]. Hebrew "Hittite"
• [d]. Hebrew "Perizzite"
• [e]. Hebrew "Hivite"
• [f]. Hebrew "Jebusite"