And I will send an angel before you is literally “And I will send to your [singular] face a messenger.” The same word is used for angel in 32.34 and 23.23, but here it is an angel, not “my angel.” It may be that a different “messenger” (Durham) is intended here, for verse 3 suggests that this angel will not represent Yahweh’s presence. Good News Translation interprets before you as “to guide you,” but it may simply mean “in front of you” (Translator’s Old Testament, New Jerusalem Bible) or “ahead of you” (Revised English Bible).

And I will drive out uses the same word as in 6.1 and 11.1. It means “to banish” or “force to leave.” Even though verse 3 says that Yahweh will not go with them, here he says that he will be the one to drive out the Canaanites … and the Jebusites. But three different agents are named in 23.28-31 for driving out these nations from the land (“hornets,” “I,” and “you”). The same six nations, or ethnic groups, are listed in 3.8 in a slightly different order. (See the comment there.)

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .