Exodus - Chapter 33

¹ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Leave, move on from here, you and the people whom you have brought here from Egypt, to the country that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that I would give to their descendants.

² I shall send an angel in front of you and drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

³ Move on towards a country flowing with milk and honey, but I myself shall not be going with you or I might annihilate you on the way, for you are an obstinate people.'

⁴ On hearing these stern words the people went into mourning and no one wore his ornaments.

⁵ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites, "You are an obstinate people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I should annihilate you. So now take off your ornaments, and then I shall decide how to deal with you!" '

⁶ So, from Mount Horeb onwards, the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments.

⁷ Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who wanted to consult Yahweh would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp.

⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, the people would all stand up and every man would stand at the door of his tent and watch Moses until he went into the Tent.

⁹ And whenever Moses went into the Tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and station itself at the entrance to the Tent, while Yahweh spoke with Moses.

¹⁰ The people could all see the pillar of cloud stationed at the entrance to the Tent and the people would all stand up and bow low, each at the door of his tent.

¹¹ Yahweh would talk to Moses face to face, as a man talks to his friend, and afterwards he would come back to the camp, but the young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, never left the inside of the Tent.

¹² Moses said to Yahweh, 'Look, you say to me, "Make the people move on," but you have not told me whom you are going to send with me, although you have said, "I know you by name and you enjoy my favour."

¹³ If indeed I enjoy your favour, please show me your ways, so that I understand you and continue to enjoy your favour; consider too that this nation is your people.'

¹⁴ Yahweh then said, 'I myself shall go with you and I shall give you rest.'

¹⁵ To which he said, 'If you do not come yourself, do not make us move on from here,

¹⁶ for how can it be known that I and my people enjoy your favour, if not by your coming with us? By this we shall be marked out, I and your people, from all the peoples on the face of the earth.'

¹⁷ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Again I shall do what you have asked, because you enjoy my favour and because I know you by name.'

¹⁸ He then said, 'Please show me your glory.'

¹⁹ Yahweh said, 'I shall make all my goodness pass before you, and before you I shall pronounce the name Yahweh; and I am gracious to those to whom I am gracious and I take pity on those on whom I take pity.

²⁰ But my face', he said, 'you cannot see, for no human being can see me and survive.'

²¹ Then Yahweh said, 'Here is a place near me. You will stand on the rock,

²² and when my glory passes by, I shall put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with my hand until I have gone past.

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

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