Exodus 33

¹The Lord said to Moses , Depart ; go up from here , you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt , to the land of which I swore to Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , saying , To your offspring I will give it.

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

³Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey ; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way , for you are a stiff-necked people .

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

⁵For the Lord had said to Moses , Say to the people of Israel , You are a stiff-necked people ; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments , that I may know what to do with you.

⁶Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments , from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp , far off from the camp , and he called it the tent of meeting . And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting , which was outside the camp .

⁸Whenever Moses went out to the tent , all the people would rise up , and each would stand at his tent door , and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent .

⁹When 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 .

¹⁰And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent , all the people would rise up and worship , each at his tent door .

¹¹Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face , as a man speaks to his friend . When Moses turned again into the camp , his assistant Joshua the son of Nun , a young man , would not depart from the tent .

¹²Moses said to the Lord, See , you say to me, Bring up this people , 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 also found favor in my sight .

¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight , please show me now your ways , that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight . Consider too that this nation is your people .

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

¹⁵And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here .

¹⁶For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight , I and your people ? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct , I and your people , from every other people on the face of the earth ?

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

¹⁸Moses said , Please show me your glory .

¹⁹And he said , I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name The Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious , and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy .

²⁰But, he said , you cannot see my face , for man shall not see me and live .

²¹And the Lord said , Behold , there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock ,

²²and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock , and I will cover you with my hand 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 .