I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
God sends His angel, likely the Son of God Himself, to guide Israel through wilderness and enemy country alike. He demands obedience to this messenger; your part is not to murmur or test Him, but to keep His precepts and hear His voice, and He will be enemy to your enemies and bring you safely to the land prepared.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 23:20-33
And I will set thy bounds,.... The bounds of the land of Canaan, which in process of time it should reach unto, though not at once, not until the times of David and Solomon, Sa2 8:1 which bounds were as follow: from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines: the Red sea was the boundary eastward, as the sea of the Philistines...
I will not drive . . . out . . . in one year; lest the land become desolate--Many reasons recommend a gradual extirpation of the former inhabitants of Canaan. But only one is here specified--the danger lest, in the unoccupied grounds, wild beasts should inconveniently multiply; a clear proof that the promised land was more than sufficient to contain the actual population of the Israelites. Next: Exodus Chapter 24