^33:4When the people heard this troubling word⁹ they mourned;¹⁰ no one put on his ornaments. ^33:5For¹¹ the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment,¹² I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments,¹³ that I may know¹⁴ what I should do to you.’ ”¹⁵^33:6So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

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Footnotes

9 Or “bad news” (, ).
10 The people would rather have risked divine discipline than to go without Yahweh in their midst. So they mourned, and they took off the ornaments. Such had been used in making the golden calf, and so because of their association with all of that they were to be removed as a sign of remorse.
11 The verse simply begins “And Yahweh said.” But it is clearly meant to be explanatory for the preceding action of the people.
12 The construction is formed with a simple imperfect in the first half and a perfect tense with vav (ו) in the second half. Heb “[in] one moment I will go up in your midst and I will destroy you.” The verse is certainly not intended to say that God was about to destroy them. That, plus the fact that he has announced he will not go in their midst, leads most commentators to take this as a conditional clause: “If I were to do such and such, then.…”
13 The Hebrew text also has “from on you.”
14 The form is the cohortative with a vav (ו) following the imperative; it therefore expresses the purpose or result: “strip off … that I may know.” The call to remove the ornaments must have been perceived as a call to show true repentance for what had happened. If they repented, then God would know how to deal with them.
15 This last clause begins with the interrogative “what,” but it is used here as an indirect interrogative. It introduces a noun clause, the object of the verb “know.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’ ” So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and didn’t put on their jewelry.

For 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.” So the Israelites remained stripped of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

NLTNew Living Translation

When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes. For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are a stubborn and rebellious people. If I were to travel with you for even a moment, I would destroy you. Remove your jewelry and fine clothes while I decide what to do with you.” So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry or fine clothes.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And the people heard this troubling word, and they mourned, and they each did not put their ornaments on themselves.

And Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if one moment I were to go up among you, I would destroy you. And now take down your ornaments from on you, and I will decide what I will do to you.” And the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.

KJV 1900King James Version

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

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