Exodus 33

¹ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Leave this place, with the people you brought out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I would give their descendants.

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

³ Go on to the land where milk and honey flow. I shall not go with you myself – you are a headstrong people – or I might exterminate you on the way.’

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

⁵ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Say to the sons of Israel, “You are a headstrong people. If I were to go with you, even for a moment only, I should exterminate you. Take off your ornaments, then, that I may know how to deal with you!”‘

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

⁷ Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp; at some distance from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who had to consult Yahweh would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp.

⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise. Every man would stand at the door of his tent and watch Moses until he reached the Tent;

⁹ the pillar of cloud would come down and station itself at the entrance to the Tent, and Yahweh would speak with Moses.

¹⁰ When they saw the pillar of cloud stationed at the entrance to the Tent, all the people would rise and bow low, each at the door of his tent.

¹¹ Yahweh would speak with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.[*a] Then Moses would turn back to the camp, but the young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the Tent.

¹² Moses said to Yahweh, ‘See, you yourself say to me, “Make the people go on”, but you. do not let me know who it is you will send with me. Yet you yourself have said, “I know you by name and you have won my favour”.

¹³ If indeed I have won your favour, please show me your ways, so that I can understand you and win your favour. Remember, too, that this nation is your own people.’

¹⁴ Yahweh replied, ‘I myself will go with you, and I will give you rest’.

¹⁵ Moses said, ‘If you are not going with us yourself, do not make us leave this place.

¹⁶ By what means can it be known that I, I and my people, have won your favour, if not by your going with us? By this we shall be marked out, I and my people, from all the peoples on the face of the earth.’

¹⁷ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Again I will do what you have asked, because you have won my favour and because I know you by name’.

¹⁸ Moses said, ‘Show me your glory, I beg you’.

¹⁹ And he said, ‘I will let all my splendour pass in front of you, and I will pronounce before you the name Yahweh. I have compassion on whom I will, and I show pity to whom I please.

²⁰ You cannot see my face,’ he said ‘for man cannot see me and live.’

²¹ And Yahweh said, ‘Here is a place beside me. You must stand on the rock,

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

²³ Then I will take my hand away and you shall see the back of me; but my face is not to be seen.’