Exodus 33

1Yahweh spoke to Moses: "Go up from here—you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt—to the land I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your offspring.'"

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.

3to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up among you, because you are a people with a stiff neck, lest I destroy you on the way.

4When the people listened carefully to this evil matter, they mourned, and no man arrayed his ornaments upon himself.

5Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to the sons of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. One moment in your midst, and I will go up and consume you. Now, then, take off your ornaments from yourself, that I may know what to do to you.'"

6The children of Israel stripped off their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.

7Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting. Everyone seeking Yahweh went out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

8Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people arose and stood, each man at his tent entrance, gazing after Moses until he entered the tent.

9Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend, stand at the tent's entrance, and speak with Moses.

10All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle entrance, and all the people arose and worshiped, every man at his tent door.

11Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He returned to the camp, but his servant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from within the tent.

12Moses said to Yahweh, "Look, you tell me, 'Lead this people up,' yet you have not informed me whom you will send with me, but you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'"

13Now therefore, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please show me your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your eyes, and see that this nation is your people.

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

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

16How then will it be known that I have gained favor in your eyes, I and your people? Is it not your going with us that distinguishes us, I and your people, from all the peoples who are on the face of the ground?

17Yahweh said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name."

18He said, "Please show me your glory."

19He said, "I will have all my goodness pass before you, and I will call the name Yahweh before you. I will show favor to whomever I show favor, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion."

20He said, "You cannot see my face, for no human can see me and live."

21Yahweh said, "See, there is a place beside me, and you will stand on the rock."

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

23I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face shall not be seen.