Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Exodus 23:20-28
Yahweh's Promise That He will Send His Angel With Them (Exodus 23:20).
Yahweh now confirms that He will go with His people into Canaan.
This section may be analysed as follows:
a Yahweh will send His Angel before them (Exodus 23:20).
b If they hear His voice then Yahweh will act for them against their enemies (Exodus 23:21).
c The Angel will cut off the Canaanite nations (Exodus 23:23).
d They are not to bow down to their gods, but to serve Yahweh Eloheyca (Exodus 23:24 a).
d Then He will bless their bread and water and take away sickness from among them (Exodus 23:25 b).
c None will cast their young or be barren among the Israelites (their seed will not be cut off) (Exodus 23:26).
b He will send His terror before them and make their enemies turn their backs on them (Exodus 23:27).
a He will send forth His hornet who will drive out the Canaanite nations (Exodus 23:28)
The chiasmus brings out in ‘a' and its parallel and ‘b' and its parallel what Yahweh will do for them, in ‘a' by sending His presence before them, in ‘b' by dealing with their enemies. In ‘c' there is the contrast between the death coming on the Canaanites and the abundance of life coming to the Israelites. The one will be cut off, the other will not be cut off. In ‘d' the call is to worship Yahweh only which will result in plenteousness and good health
“Behold I am sending an Angel before you to keep you by the way, and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. Take heed to him and listen to his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.”
Once again we are introduced to the Angel of Yahweh (see on Exodus 3:2. Also Genesis 16:7; Genesis 20:17; Genesis 22:11), that mysterious figure who personally represented Yahweh and yet was somehow different. The Angel brings Yahweh more physically into a situation. He is Yahweh, for Yahweh can say, ‘My name is in Him'. And He can then add ‘My Angel will go before you -- and I will cut them off', demonstrating that the Angel and Yahweh act as One (see also Exodus 32:34; Exodus 33:2 with Exodus 33:14).
The Angel who goes before them was surely represented by the pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21; Deuteronomy 1:33), which itself manifested the presence of God (Exodus 13:21). God will be with them in the way.
“The place which I have prepared”. Compare Exodus 15:17. He will keep them in the way and bring them to the prepared place in which they will enjoy the harvests of which He has spoken.
“Take heed to him.” Obedience was necessary if they were to inherit the promises. If they broke His laws His Angel would not forgive it. For He was a representation of the holy Yahweh, God of the covenant. Yet such was His mercy that when they did provoke Him He partly overlooked their transgression for Moses' sake, although warning that their sin would eventually be visited on them, and He continued to go before them (Exodus 32:31; Exodus 33:14).
“My name is in him.” What Yahweh is, He is. The Old Testament reveals Yahweh in three ways, under His Own name, as the Angel of Yahweh (Yahweh in personal, close revelation) and as the Spirit of Yahweh, (the invisible Yahweh seen in powerful and visible action). But each is Yahweh and reveals His nature and being.
“But if you will indeed listen to his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”
Obedience will bring the Overlord's support against their coming enemies. One of the great advantages of a Suzerainty Treaty was that the great overlord would come to the support of the treaty people. Their enemies would be his enemies, because they were his people and he was their overlord. But if they were not obedient to the treaty he would come and punish them (Exodus 23:21). This illustrates that we are still in the atmosphere of the great Suzerainty treaty in Exodus 20.
Note the change in personal pronouns. ‘His voice --- all that I speak'. Yahweh and the Angel speak as One.
“For my Angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorite and the Hittite, and the Perizzite and the Canaanite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, and I will cut them off.”
The general treaty is now applied to the particular situation. As they enter the land they will meet up with the multiplicity of its inhabitants. And the Angel of Yahweh will go before them and Yahweh will cut off their enemies. The use of six may indicate three (the number of completeness) intensified and thus signify that the six nations are to be seen as all the inhabitants in the land (compare Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17 and contrast Exodus 13:5. In Exodus 23:28 three are cited confirming this connection).
For the names of the enemies compare especially on Exodus 3:8; also Exodus 13:5.
“You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works. But you shall utterly overthrow them and break in pieces their pillars.”
Rivals to the Overlord must be rejected and their symbols destroyed. They are not to be tolerated. There is One Overlord and He is Yahweh. Peoples entering a land would often begin to include the gods of the land within their worship (see on 2 Kings 17:24) to ensure their protection. But this was not to be so here. They too must be cut off and cast out. The land is Yahweh's.
“Nor do after their works.” Canaanite religion was debased and sexually perverted.
“Break in pieces their pillars.” This refers to the standing stones which were often a feature of Canaanite shrines. Pillars were often set up as memorials (Genesis 18:18; Genesis 35:13; Exodus 24:4; Joshua 4:1) but these were different, they were identified with a god and venerated, and offerings were placed before them. They represented Canaanite religion and its gods. Many examples have been found in and around Palestine (for example at Gezer, Hazor, Lejjun, Byblos and Ugarit), some with offerings still before them. They are constantly condemned throughout the Old Testament.
“And you shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. None will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfil the number of your days.”
Yahweh Himself will provide for all their needs of food, water, fertility and long life. The gods of rain and storm and the fertility gods were a regular feature of Canaanite life and religion. But they will be irrelevant. For what Yahweh will do will be far better than anything that the Canaanites claim for their gods. He can ensure that they have food and water in abundance (compare Deuteronomy 11:14; Deuteronomy 28:12), that all their women are fertile and that they live long lives. This was a picture of a new Eden but it would fail in its fulfilment because of the disobedience of the people.
Note again the change of pronoun from He to I which occurs often when Yahweh speaks, as God makes a statement and then personalises it.
“You shall serve Yahweh your God.” Compare Exodus 20:2. This is a reference back to the giving of the covenant. He alone is to be served and all rivals are to be rejected. Service includes both being faithful to the ordinances laid down for worship, and obedience to His covenant stipulations.
“I will send my terror before you and will discomfit all the people to whom you will come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send the hornet before you which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite and the Hittite from before you.”
Yahweh will prepare the way before them by bringing a great fear on their future foes. Thus they will be beaten before the battle begins, and will flee in terror from them (‘turn their backs to you'). Compare for this Exodus 15:14; Deuteronomy 2:25, and its part fulfilment in Joshua 2:9; Joshua 10:10; Judges 4:15. See also Genesis 35:5. He will also use physical terrors to aid in the discomfiting.
“I will send the hornet before you.” Compare Deuteronomy 7:20. This may mean that Yahweh will also support them by using natural terrors to discomfit their foes. The hornet is a larger version of the wasp with a vicious sting, which can sometimes cause death, and a fearsome reputation. All would know of the terror the appearance of a swarm of hornets could cause, and it would seem that a literal plague of hornets did at one notable stage throw the forces of the two kings of the Amorites into disarray (Joshua 24:12). The fact that the Amorites are not mentioned in Exodus 23:28 (compare Exodus 23:23) demonstrates that this was written before that event. We could translate ‘hornets' seeing it as a collective noun. Here it probably represents all the physical terrors of nature.
“Hornet” (tsi‘rah). The word only occurs in Exodus 23:28; Deuteronomy 7:20 and Joshua 24:12. Some would translate as ‘depression, discouragement' but a more positive foe appears to be in mind. It comes from the root word which means being ‘struck with a skin disease'. Hornets attack the skin. This promise may have been in mind in Revelation 9:1.
But the context may suggest that the description has the Angel of Yahweh in mind, pictured in terms of the fearsome hornet, swarming down on the enemy and causing them to flee in terror. The Israelite attacks in all quarters may well have seemed like to their enemy like swarms of hornets, coming from nowhere and buzzing round their cities and towns.
The threefold description of the Canaanites again stresses completeness. This mention of only three Canaanite nations is unusual (usually there are five, six or seven) and is a most interesting and careful use of a number. In Exodus 23:23 six nations were mentioned representing the whole. Had six been used here that would have made twelve. But twelve represented Israel (the twelve tribes). Thus here three are used, making nine in the passage in all, which is simply three intensified indicating the whole.