Chapter 33

¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your seed.’ ²I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: ³to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way.”

⁴When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry.

⁵Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.”

⁶The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it “The tent of meeting.” It happened that everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent. ⁹It happened, when Moses entered into the Tent, that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses. ¹⁰All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their tent door. ¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart out of the Tent.

¹²Moses said to Yahweh, “Behold, you tell me, ‘Bring up this people:’ and you haven’t let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider 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 doesn’t go with me, don’t carry us up from here. ¹⁶For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?”

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

¹⁸He said, “Please show me your glory.”

¹⁹He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” ²⁰He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” ²¹Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. ²²It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; ²³then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”