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The Angel of the Lord Will Lead Israel

20 Look, I will send an angel before you to guard you on your way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him. Listen to his voice. Do not provoke him, because he will not pardon your disobedience, for my Name is in him. 22 But if you carefully listen to his voice and carry out all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

23 Yes, my Angel shall go ahead of you and bring you into the territory of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Then I will cut them off. 24 You shall not bow down to their gods. Do not serve them or follow their practices, but you must completely overthrow them and demolish their sacred memorial stones. 25 You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst. 26 No one will miscarry or be childless[a] in your land. I will grant you the full number of your days.

27 I will send my terror before you, and I will spread confusion among all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs and flee from you. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you. It will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from your presence. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in a single year, or the land would become desolate, and the wild animals would become too numerous for you. 30 As you advance, I will drive them out little by little, until you have grown in number and taken possession of the land.

31 I will establish your border from the Red Sea[b] all the way to the Mediterranean Sea,[c] and from the Wilderness[d] to the River.[e] So I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32 You shall not make a treaty[f] with them or with their gods. 33 They are not to dwell in your land, or they will make you sin against me, because if you serve their gods, this will surely be a trap for you.

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 23:26 Or infertile
  2. Exodus 23:31 The Hebrew Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds) here refers to the Gulf of Aqaba, also called the Gulf of Elat.
  3. Exodus 23:31 Hebrew the Sea of the Philistines
  4. Exodus 23:31 The Hebrew word midbar, usually translated wilderness, refers to arid and semi-arid regions where agriculture is not possible but herding is. The word midbar is wider than the English word desert and narrower than the English word wilderness, which includes forested areas. Here it refers to the arid wilderness south of Israel.
  5. Exodus 23:31 That is, from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the Sinai Peninsula to the Euphrates River
  6. Exodus 23:32 Literally cut a treaty. See Genesis 15 to see why Israelites referred to cutting a treaty.