Exodus 33
1 The LORD said to Moses, “Go, set out from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’”
2 I will send an angel ahead of you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I might consume you on the way.”
4 When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on their ornaments.
5 The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for even a moment, I would consume you. Now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you.’”
6 So the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
7 Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far from the camp, and call it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise. Each person would stand at the entrance of their own tent and watch Moses until he entered the tent.
9 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.
10 All the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent. Then all the people would rise and bow down, each at the entrance of their own tent.
11 The LORD would speak with Moses face to face, as someone speaks with a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his aide, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not leave the inside of the tent.
12 Moses said to the LORD, “Look, you tell me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. And you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my eyes.’”
13 “Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please make your ways known to me, so that I may know you and find favor in your eyes. And remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
16 How will it be known that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us? That is how I and your people will be distinguished from all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
17 The LORD said to Moses, “I will do this thing you have asked as well, because you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name.”
18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”
19 The LORD replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will show favor to whom I show favor, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
20 He added, “You cannot see my face, because no human being can see me and live.”
21 The LORD said, “There is a place near me. Stand on the rock.
22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
23 Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.”
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