Exodus 33

The LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place. You and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt are to go up to the land I promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.'

1And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

Note"The people you brought up out of the land of Egypt", God says "you brought up," not "I brought up." In the chapters just before this, Israel had worshiped a golden calf, and the wording here holds Moses, rather than God, as the one who owns the crowd.

2I will send an angel ahead of you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

2And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

Note"Angel" translates a Hebrew word meaning simply "messenger", an emissary sent in place of the one who sends him. The point of the sentence is the substitution: a representative will travel with Israel instead of God himself. The six peoples named were the established inhabitants of Canaan as Israel's traditions remembered them. Such lists are stock phrases in these texts and vary in length and order from passage to passage; they stand for "the population already living in the land" rather than a precise census.

3Go up to a land rich with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up among you, because you are a stubborn people. If I did, I might destroy you on the way."

3Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

Note"A land rich with milk and honey" is a fixed idiom for land good for herding and foraging, milk from goats and cattle grazing open pasture, honey from wild bees. It describes natural abundance without farming, not luxury. "Stubborn" renders a Hebrew image the King James keeps literally as "stiffnecked": an ox that stiffens its neck against the yoke and refuses to be steered.

4When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his jewelry.

4And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

NotePutting off jewelry was a recognized public sign of mourning, along with torn clothes, ashes, and rough sackcloth. The people are not being fined; they are dressing the way mourners dressed, because the news that God would not travel among them was heard as a bereavement.

5For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the people of Israel: 'You are a stubborn people. If I were to come up among you for even a moment, I would destroy you. So now take off your jewelry, and then I will know what to do with you.'"

5For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

6So the people of Israel stripped off their jewelry at Mount Horeb.

6And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

NoteHoreb is the other name these texts use for the mountain of Sinai; the two names refer to the same place. The Hebrew of this line is ambiguous. It can mean that the people stripped off their jewelry at Mount Horeb, or that from Mount Horeb onward they went without it, a permanent change rather than a single act.

7Moses took the tent and set it up outside the camp, far away from it, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. Everyone who was seeking the LORD would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.

7And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

NoteThis tent is not the elaborate tabernacle whose construction was commanded in the preceding chapters; that structure has not been built yet. This is a plain tent that Moses pitched deliberately outside the camp, and the name he gave it, "Tent of Meeting," means the place where God and a person meet to talk. "Seeking the LORD" here means going to inquire, bringing a question or a dispute to be settled by a divine answer, the way one might go to a court or an oracle. The Hebrew verbs in verses 7–11 describe repeated, habitual action: this is what Moses and the people used to do, not a single occasion.

8Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand, each man at the door of his own tent, and watch Moses until he had gone inside.

8And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

9As Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses.

9And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

NoteThe pillar of cloud is the visible column that, in the surrounding narrative, has been leading Israel through the wilderness, cloud by day and fire by night. Its coming down to the tent door is the sign, visible to the whole camp, that God has arrived to speak.

10When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, they would all get up and worship, each man at the door of his own tent.

10And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

11The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, the way a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would go back into the camp, but his helper Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not leave the tent.

11And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Note"Face to face" is an idiom for direct, unmediated conversation between equals in candor (as the verse itself explains, the way friends talk. It stands in deliberate tension with verse 20, where Moses is told he cannot see God's face; the same words are doing different work in the two places, and the chapter does not resolve the tension. The word rendered "helper" means an attendant or aide who serves a superior) Joshua's standing role, not a one-time errand.

12Moses said to the LORD, "Look, you keep telling me, 'Lead this people up,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have found favor with me.'

12And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.

Note"I know you by name" is an idiom for singling someone out personally, the way a ruler knows an individual courtier rather than the crowd. It claims a specific relationship, not mere acquaintance. "Found favor with me" translates the Hebrew "found grace in my eyes," a standard phrase for winning someone's goodwill, used of kings, patrons, and anyone whose approval matters. It says nothing in itself about deserving.

13So now, please, if I have found favor with you, show me your ways, so that I may know you and keep finding favor with you. And remember that this nation is your people."

13Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

Note"Show me your ways" asks to be shown how God characteristically acts, his manner of dealing, so that Moses can know what to expect, not merely a route to travel.

14He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

14And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

Note"My presence" is literally "my face" in Hebrew, the same word that runs through verses 20 and 23. The reply is deliberately built out of the word Moses will shortly ask about. "Rest" here means a settled place to stop (the end of wandering, arrival at somewhere to live), not sleep or relief from fatigue.

15Moses said to him, "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

16For how will anyone know that I and your people have found favor with you? Is it not by your going with us? That is what will set us apart, me and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth."

16For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

17The LORD said to Moses, "I will do this thing you have asked as well, because you have found favor with me, and I know you by name."

17And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

18Then Moses said, "Please, show me your glory."

18And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

Note"Glory" translates a Hebrew word whose root sense is weight or heaviness, used for the visible, overwhelming presence and splendor of God. Moses is asking to see something, not to be told something.

19The LORD said, "I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will call out the name of the LORD in front of you. I will be kind to whoever I choose to be kind to, and I will show mercy to whoever I choose to show mercy to.

19And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

Note"The LORD" in capital letters stands in for God's personal name, the four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which Jewish tradition does not pronounce aloud. So "proclaim the name of the LORD" means announcing that name itself (the thing Moses is being granted in place of the sight he asked for. "I will be kind to whoever I choose to be kind to" renders a Hebrew construction that repeats the same verb in both halves of the sentence. Such phrasing is genuinely open: it can assert unrestricted freedom of choice, or simply intensify) "I am indeed gracious", and the Hebrew does not settle which.

20But," he said, "you cannot see my face, because no one may see me and stay alive."

20And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

21The LORD said, "Look, there is a place near me where you shall stand on a rock.

21And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

22While my glory passes by, I will put you in a crack in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have gone past.

22And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

23Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back. But my face must not be seen."

23And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.