Exodus 33:2

“And I will send an angel before thee, etc.] Not the angel before promised, (<022320>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…”

“See Exodus 3:8. For I will not go up in the midst of thee - The covenant on which the original promise Exodus 23:20-23 was based had been broken by the people. Yahweh now therefore declared that though His Angel should go before Moses, He would withhold His own favoring presence. The nation should be put on a level with other nations, to lose its character as the people in special covenant with Yahweh (see the note at Exodus 33:16). Thus were the people forcibly warned that His presence could prove a blessing to them only on condition of their keeping their part of the covenant Exodus 33:3. If they failed in this, His presence would be to them “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24; compare…”

“33:2-3 an angel. . . . But I will not travel: This angel was possibly not the “angel of the Lord,” since in Exodus and other parts of the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord is closely associated with the presence of the Lord himself (see 3:2; 23:20-23). Or, God might have been saying that while he would go before them in the person of the angel (33:2), he would not dwell among them (33:3) in the Tabernacle, as he had planned. • Canaanites . . . Jebusites: See study note on 3:8.”

“an angel: Exo 23:20, Exo 32:34, Exo 34:11 the Canaanite: Exo 3:8, Exo 3:17; Deu 7:22; Jos 24:11 Exodus 33:3”