Exodus 33:1–11

Command to Resume Travel

33And Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ ²And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites,^a the Amorites,^b and the Hittites^c and the Perizzites,^d the Hivites,^e and the Jebusites,^{f 3}Go to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way.” ⁴And the people heard this troubling^g word, and they mourned, and they each did not put their ornaments on themselves.

⁵And Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites,^h ‘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 decideⁱ what I will do to you.” ⁶And the Israelites^j stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.

The Tent outside the Camp

⁷And Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp far from the camp, and he called it the tent of assembly, and^k all seeking Yahweh would go out to the tent of assembly, which was outside the camp. ⁸And^l at the going out of Moses to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at the opening of his tent, and gaze after Moses until his entering the tent. ⁹And^m at the entering of Moses into the tent the column of cloud would descend and stand at the opening of the tent, and he would speak with Moses. ¹⁰And all the people would see the column of cloud standing at the opening of the tent, and all the people would rise and bow in worship, each at the opening of his tent. ¹¹And Yahweh would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his neighbor. And he would return to the camp, and his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the middle of the tent.