1 The Command to Leave Sinai Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you Ex. 32:1, 7, 13; Josh. 3:17 and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Gen. 12:7 ‘To your descendants I will give it.’
2 Ex. 32:34; Josh. 5:14 And I will send My Angel before you, Ex. 23:27–31; Josh. 24:11 and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
3 Go up Ex. 3:8 to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest Num. 16:21, 45 I consume you on the way, for you are Ex. 32:9; 33:5 a stiff-necked people.”
4 And when the people heard this bad news, Num. 14:1, 39 they mourned, Ezra 9:3; Esth. 4:1, 4; Ezek. 24:17, 23 and no one put on his ornaments.
5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may (Ps. 139:23) know what to do to you.’ ”
6 So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
7 Moses Meets with the Lord Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and Ex. 29:42, 43 called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who Deut. 4:29 sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.
8 So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood Num. 16:27 at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
9 And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord Ex. 25:22; 31:18; Ps. 99:7 talked with Moses.
10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and Ex. 4:31 worshiped, each man in his tent door.
11 So Num. 12:8; Deut. 34:10 the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but Ex. 24:13 his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
12 The Promise of God’s Presence Then Moses said to the Lord , “See, Ex. 3:10; 32:34 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, Ex. 33:17; John 10:14, 15;2 Tim. 2:19 ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
13 Now therefore, I pray, Ex. 34:9 if I have found grace in Your sight, Ps. 25:4; 27:11; 86:11; 119:33 show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Ex. 3:7, 10; 5:1; 32:12, 14; Deut. 9:26, 29 Your people.”
14 And He said, Ex. 3:12; Deut. 4:37; Is. 63:9 “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you Deut. 12:10; 25:19; Josh. 21:44; 22:4 rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, Ex. 33:3 “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, Num. 14:14 except You go with us? So we Ex. 34:10; Deut. 4:7, 34 shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
17 So the Lord said to Moses, (James 5:16) “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
18 And he said, “Please, show me Ex. 24:16, 17; (1 Tim. 6:16) Your glory.”
19 Then He said, “I will make all My Ex. 34:6, 7 goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. (Rom. 9:15, 16, 18) I will be gracious to whom I will be (Rom. 4:4, 16) gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for (Gen. 32:30) no man shall see Me, and live.”
21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you Song 2:14; Is. 2:21 in the cleft of the rock, and will Ps. 91:1, 4; Is. 49:2; 51:16 cover you with My hand while I pass by.
23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall Ex. 33:20; (John 1:18) not be seen.”