Exodus 33

¹The LORD spoke to Moses, 'Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To your offspring I will give it.'

²I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

³Go 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.'

⁴When the people heard this distressing word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.

⁵The LORD said to Moses, 'Say to the sons of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people; if I go up in your midst for a single moment I would consume you. And now, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what to do with you.'

⁶So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb.

⁷Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting; and it came about that everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

⁸And it came about that whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and stand, each at his tent door, and watch after Moses until he had gone into the tent.

⁹And it came about, when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and he would speak with Moses.

¹⁰And 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 one at the entrance of his own tent.

¹¹And the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his companion. And Moses would return to the camp, but his attendant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the midst of the tent.

¹²And Moses said to Yahweh: See, you say to me: Bring up this people — but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you yourself said: I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my eyes.

¹³And now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me know your way, so that I may know you and so that I may find favor in your eyes — and consider that this nation is your people.

¹⁴And he said: My face will go, and I will give you rest.

¹⁵And he said to him: If your face does not go, do not bring us up from here.

¹⁶And how then shall it be known that I have found favor in your eyes — I and your people — if not by your going with us? So that we shall be distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth.

¹⁷And Yahweh said to Moses: This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name.

¹⁸And he said: Show me, please, your glory.

¹⁹And he said: I will cause all my goodness to pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

²⁰And he said: You cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live.

²¹And the LORD said, 'Behold, there is a place with me, where you shall stand upon the rock.'

²²And it shall be, when my glory passes by, that I will set you in the crevice of the rock, and I will cover you with my palm until I have passed by.

²³Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.