Exodus 33
33
The LORD: “I can’t go”
1The LORD said to Moses, “Go and leave this place, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt. Go to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I’ll give it to your descendants.’ 2I’ll send a messenger before you. I’ll drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3Go to this land full of milk and honey. But I won’t go up with you because I would end up destroying you along the way since you are a stubborn people.”
4When the people heard the bad news, they were sorry. No one put on any jewelry, 5because the LORD had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stubborn people. If I were to go up with you even for a single moment, I would destroy you. So now take off your jewelry, while I figure out what to do with you.’” 6So after leaving Mount Horeb the Israelites rid themselves of their jewelry.
Speaking with the LORD at the meeting tent
7Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, far away from the camp. He called it the meeting tent. Everyone who wanted advice from the LORD would go out to the meeting tent outside the camp. 8Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9When Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at the tent’s entrance while the LORD talked with Moses. 10When all the people saw the column of cloud standing at the tent’s entrance, they would all rise and then bow down at the entrances to their tents. 11In this way the LORD used to speak to Moses face-to-face, like two people talking to each other. Then Moses would come back to the camp. But his young assistant Joshua, Nun’s son, wouldn’t leave the tent.
Moses pleads with God
12Moses said to the LORD, “Look, you’ve been telling me, ‘Lead these people forward.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. Yet you’ve assured me, ‘I know you by name and think highly of you.’ 13Now if you do think highly of me, show me your ways so that I may know you and so that you may really approve of me. Remember too that this nation is your people.”
14The LORD replied, “I’ll go myself, and I’ll help you.”
15Moses replied, “If you won’t go yourself, don’t make us leave here. 16Because how will anyone know that we have your special approval, both I and your people, unless you go with us? Only that distinguishes us, me and your people, from every other people on the earth.”
17The LORD said to Moses, “I’ll do exactly what you’ve asked because you have my special approval, and I know you by name.”
18Moses said, “Please show me your glorious presence.”
19The LORD said, “I’ll make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I’ll proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD.’ I will be kind to whomever I wish to be kind, and I will have compassion to whomever I wish to be compassionate. 20But,” the LORD said, “you can’t see my face because no one can see me and live.” 21The LORD said, “Here is a place near me where you will stand beside the rock. 22As my glorious presence passes by, I’ll set you in a gap in the rock, and I’ll cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. 23Then I’ll take away my hand, and you will see my back, but my face won’t be visible.”
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Exodus 33: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Exodus 33
33
1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee up from this place, thou and thy people which thou has brought out of the land of Egypt, into the land concerning which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: To thy seed I will give it.
2And I will send an angel before thee, that I may cast out the Chanaanite, and the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite.
3That thou mayst enter into the land that floweth with milk and honey. For I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I destroy thee in the way.
4And the people hearing these very bad tidings mourned: and no man put on his ornaments according to custom.
5And the Lord said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: Thou are a stiffnecked people; once I shall come up in the midst of thee, and shall destroy thee. Now presently lay aside thy ornaments, that I may know what to do with thee.
6So the children of Israel laid aside their ornaments by mount Horeb.
7Moses also, taking the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp afar off, and called the name thereof, The tabernacle of the covenant. And all the people that had any question, went forth to the tabernacle of the covenant, without the camp.
8And when Moses went forth to the tabernacle, all the people rose up, and every one stood in the door of his pavilion: and they beheld the back of Moses, till he went into the tabernacle.
9And when he was gone into the tabernacle of the covenant, the pillar of the cloud came down, and stood at the door: and he spoke with Moses.
10And all saw that the pillar of the cloud stood at the door of the tabernacle. And they stood, and worshipped at the doors of their tents.
11And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend. And when he returned into the camp, his servant Josue the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from the tabernacle.
12And Moses said to the Lord: Thou commandest me to lead forth this people. And thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, especially whereas thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in my sight.
13If therefore I have found favour in thy sight, shew me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thy eyes. Look upon thy people this nation.
14And the Lord said: My face shall go before thee, and I will give thee rest.
15And Moses said: If thou thyself dost not go before, bring us not out of this place.
16For how shall we be able to know, I and thy people, that we have found grace in thy sight, unless thou walk with us: that we may be glorified by all people that dwell upon the earth?
17And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, will I do. For thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name.
18And he said: Shew me thy glory.
19He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: And I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me.
20And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live.
21And again he said: Behold, there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock.
22And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and protect thee with my right hand, till I pass.
23And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.