Exodus 33

The LORD said to Moses, “Go, go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.” When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up in your midst for a single moment, I would consume you. Now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” The Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. Moses used to take the tent and pitch it for himself outside the camp, far from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and watch Moses until he entered the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. All the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, and all the people would rise and bow down, each at the entrance of his tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his assistant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not leave the tent. Moses said to the LORD, “Look, you say to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but you have not made known to me whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now, if I have found favor in your sight, please make your ways known to me, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider that this nation is your people.” He said, “My presence will go, and I will give you rest.” Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go, do not bring us up from here. How then shall it be known that I and your people have found favor in your sight? Is it not by your going with us? Then we, I and your people, shall be distinguished from all the people on the face of the earth.” The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing you have asked, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” He said, “You cannot see my face, for no human being can see me and live.” The LORD said, “Look, there is a place by me. You shall stand on the rock, and when my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Rights and attribution