Exodus 23:20 – The Angel

God called Moses up to Mount Sinai. There He taught Moses the Torah. He also taught him what will happen after the people leave Mount Sinai.

The Jewish people know that after they leave Mount Sinai they will be traveling to the Land of Israel.

Why is God telling Moses about an angel? What do we know about this angel?

What is a Malach?

Angel is one translation of the Hebrew word “malach.” The possible translations of malach are:

• messenger
• heavenly messenger: an angel
• God’s messenger: a prophet, priest, or teacher

As we will see, the commentators have different ideas about what malach means in this verse.

The Place

Before I discuss more about the angel, let’s deal with the end of our verse.

What is meant by the phrase “the place which I have prepared”?

As Daat Mikra explains, the angel will show the Jewish people the way to the Land of Israel. This is the place that God is giving to them.

In particular this is a reference to Jerusalem and the Temple that will be built there. This is the place that God prepared as His “dwelling place.”

Now we’re ready to understand how various commentators explain the angel.

Rashi – God’s Warning

Rashi writes that Exodus 23:20 is God’s warning to the Jewish people. Because of sin God’s direct presence will not go with them.

According to Rashi, God’s statement in our verse is not due to some current sin, but will be the result of a future sin.

Rashi quotes Exodus 33 as the realization of this warning:

Exodus 33 was told to Moses after the sin of the Golden Calf.

Ramban – The Angel and Joshua

Ramban disagrees with Rashi.

Granted, after the sin of the Golden Calf, God told Moses that He was sending an angel in His place. But this never happened, because Moses pleaded with God.

God accepted this plea and stated that He would continue to go with the people.

However, after Moses died and Joshua became the leader, then God sent an angel.

The reason for this vision was to inform Joshua that an angel would go out before them into battle.

Ramban quotes from a midrash:

So long as Moses was alive, the angel did not go with them. But when the Jewish people came into the Land of Israel, the angel appeared to Joshua.

Who was this angel? Ramban concludes that this is Gabriel who fights for the Jewish people. That is why he appeared to Joshua “with his sword drawn in his hand.”

Rambam – Angel to Prophet

Rambam (The Guide of the Perplexed 2:34) points out that Exodus 23:20 was spoken to Moses while the Jewish people were still camped at Mount Sinai.

God is telling Moses and the Jewish people that they will not always be gathered together in one group. They will not always experience the pillar of fire and cloud hovering over the Tabernacle.

He also states that our verse is addressed to a multitude of people. But, an angel does not appear to a multitude and does not give them commandments and prohibitions.

Rambam concludes that God is informing the Jewish people that “there would be a prophet among them to whom an angel would come who would speak to him and give him orders and prohibitions. Thus [Exodus 23:21-22] God forbade us to disobey that angel whose words the prophet would transmit to us.”

Rambam also states that every prophet (except for Moses) receives prophetic revelation only via an angel.

According to Rambam the angel that God is promising was only needed after the death of Moses.

Hirsch – The Angel is Moses

Rabbi Hirsch writes that the word malach “does not necessarily denote an individual, whether human or superhuman, but may also denote any contrivance that God arranges for a specific purpose.”

The word malach in this context can’t mean angel. We learn in Exodus 23:21-22 that this malach will issue commands that must be obeyed. But God does not issue commands via an angel.

Therefore, R. Hirsch concludes that our verse refers to Moses who was “God’s messenger” who goes before the Jewish people.

Based on this, here is how the Hirsch Chumash translates our verse:

Daat Mikra – Angel of Promise

The purpose of Exodus 23:20 is to inform and make a promise about what is soon to happen.

The Jewish people will soon be leaving Mount Sinai and traveling to the Land of Israel. God promises them that His angel will continue to travel with them.

This is a continuation of what happened when the Jewish people left Egypt and at the splitting of the sea.

Daat Mikra concludes, that just as in chapter 14 “angel” means the glory of God, so too in our verse, “angel” means the glory of God.

God is promising that His glory, His divine presence, will continue to travel with and lead the Jewish people. It will guide them through the wilderness and lead the conquering of the Land of Israel.

This angel is not one of the known angels such as Gabriel or Michael. Rather, in this context “angel” means God’s continuing oversight of the children of Israel.

At times God reveals His glory. An instance of this was the pillar of fire and cloud that traveled before the Jewish camp. Also, God revealed this glory to Joshua (Joshua 5:13, quoted above).

This angel stayed with the Jewish people until the beginning of the period of the Judges.

So we see that Daat Mikra partially agrees with Ramban but disagrees about the nature of what was revealed to Joshua.