Exodus 33–34

THE TENT OUTSIDE THE CAMP

33The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go up from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your offspring.^{o 2}I will send an angel ahead of you and will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites,^C Hivites, and Jebusites.^{p 3}Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up with you because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.”^{q 4}When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and didn’t put on their jewelry.^a

⁵For the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.” ⁶So the Israelites remained stripped of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses took a tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a distance from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone who wanted to consult the Lord would go to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.^{b 8}Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would stand up, each one at the door of his tent, and they would watch Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance to the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.^{c 10}As all the people saw the pillar of cloud remaining at the entrance to the tent, they would stand up, then bow in worship, each one at the door of his tent. ¹¹The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend, then Moses would return to the camp. His assistant, the young man Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent.^d

THE LORD’S GLORY

¹²Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you have told me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You said, ‘I know you by name,^e and you have also found favor with me.’ ¹³Now if I have indeed found favor with you, please teach me your ways,^f and I will know you, so that I may find favor with you. Now consider that this nation is your people.”^g

¹⁴And he replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”^h

¹⁵“If your presence does not go,” Moses responded to him, “don’t make us go up from here. ¹⁶How will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us? I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.”ⁱ

¹⁷The Lord answered Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.”^j

¹⁹He said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name ‘the Lord’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”^{k 20}But he added, “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see^l me and live.” ²¹The Lord said, “Here is a place near me. You are to stand on the rock, ²²and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.^{m 23}Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.”

NEW STONE TABLETS

34The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.^{n 2}Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me on the mountaintop. ³No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”^o

⁴Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him.

⁵The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” ⁶The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,^{p 7}maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.^q But he will not leave the guilty^r unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

⁸Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. ⁹Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.”^s

COVENANT OBLIGATIONS

¹⁰And the Lord responded, “Look, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done^A in the whole earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.^{a 11}Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites,^B and Jebusites. ¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you.^{b 13}Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.^{c 14}Because the Lord is jealous^d for his reputation, you are never to bow down to another god.^C He is a jealous God.

¹⁵“Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.^{e 16}Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.^f

¹⁷“Do not make cast images^g of gods for yourselves.

¹⁸“Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, as I commanded you, for you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib.^h

¹⁹“The firstbornⁱ male from every womb belongs to me, including all your male^EF livestock, the firstborn of cattle or sheep. ²⁰You may redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck.^j You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

²¹“You are to labor six days but you must rest^k on the seventh day; you must even rest during plowing and harvesting times.

²²“Observe the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year. ²³Three times a year^l all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. ²⁴For I will drive out nations^m before you and enlarge your territory.ⁿ No one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

²⁵“Do not present^B the blood for my sacrifice with anything leavened. The sacrifice of the Passover Festival must not remain until morning.^o

²⁶“Bring the best firstfruits^p of your land to the house of the Lord your God.

“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷The Lord also said to Moses, “Write^q down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.”

²⁸Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments,^r the words of the covenant, on the tablets.

MOSES’S RADIANT FACE

²⁹As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord.^{Cs 30}When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone!^t They were afraid to come near him. ³¹But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. ³²Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. ³³When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,^{u 35}and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face^D was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.