In all their affliction he was afflicted. The "affliction" of Israel began in Egypt (Genesis 15:13), probably not long after the death of Joseph. It became an intense oppression, when the king "arose who knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8).
God's sympathy with Israel's sufferings at this time is strongly marked in the narrative of Exodus (Exodus 2:23, Exodus 2:24; Exodus 3:7, Exodus 3:17). An alternative reading of the Hebrew text gives the sense, "In all their affliction he was not an adversary;" i.
e. he did not afflict them for their hurt, but for their benefit. But the reading followed by our translators, and most moderns, is to be preferred. The angel of his presence saved them. "The angel of his presence" occurs nowhere but in this place.
It is probably equivalent to "the angel of God" (Exodus 14:19; 15:6; Acts 27:23), or "the angel of the Lord" (Genesis 16:7; Numbers 22:23; 13:3, etc.), and designates either the Second Person of the Trinity, or the highest of the angelic company, who seems to be the archangel Michael.
(For the angelic interpositions which "saved" Israel, see Exodus 14:19; 6:11-23; 13:3-21; 2 Kings 19:35, etc.) In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. The "redemption" of this passage is probably that from the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 6:6; Exodus 15:13; Deuteronomy 7:8, etc.
), which belonged to "the days of old"—not the spiritual redemption from the bondage of sin, which was reserved for the time of the Messiah. Having "redeemed" them, i.e. delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and thereby, as it were, purchased them to be his own, he hare them—"Carried them on eagles' wings" (Exodus 19:4), and brought them safely through the wilderness to Palestine (comp.