Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 23:28

"And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee." — Exodus 23:28 (ASV)

I will send hornets. — Hebrew, the hornet. Compare Joshua 24:12, where “the hornet” is said to have been sent.

No doubt hornets might be so numerous as to become an intolerable plague, inducing a nation to leave its country and seek another (see Bochart, Hierozoic. iv. 13). However, since we have no historical account of this happening with the Canaanite races, the expression used here is unlikely to be meant literally.

Probably, the Egyptians are the "hornets" intended. It was they who, under Rameses III, broke the power of the Hittites and other nations of Palestine while the Israelites were journeying in the wilderness. Possibly, the term was chosen in reference to the hieroglyphic sign for “king” in Egypt, which was the figure of a bee or wasp. The author of the Book of Wisdom, however, seems to have understood the expression literally .