Exodus 33 - 34 — Legacy Standard Bible

Moses and the Tent of Meeting

33Then 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 of which ^aI swore to Abraham, ^bto Isaac, and ^cto Jacob, saying, ‘^dTo your seed I will give it.’ ²“And I will send ^aan angel before you, and ^bI will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ³“Go up to a land ^aflowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst because you are ^ba stiff-necked people, lest ^cI consume you on the way.”

⁴Then the people heard this ¹sad word and ^awent into mourning; and none of them put on his ornaments. ⁵So Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are ^aa stiff-necked people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would consume you. So now, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I shall do with you.’” ⁶So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take ^athe tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And ^beveryone who sought Yahweh would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸And it happened whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹And it happened whenever Moses entered the tent, that ^athe pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; ^band ¹Yahweh would speak with Moses. ¹⁰And all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent. And all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. ¹¹Thus ^aYahweh used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. Then ¹Moses would return to the camp, and ^bhis attendant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses and the Glory of Yahweh

¹²Then Moses said to Yahweh, “See, You say to me, ‘^aBring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know ^bwhom You will send with me. ^cMoreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ ¹³“So now, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, ^alet me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. ^bSee also, that this nation is Your people.” ¹⁴And He said, “^aMy presence shall go with you, and ^bI will give you rest.” ¹⁵Then he said to Him, “^aIf Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. ¹⁶“Indeed, how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that ^awe, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the ¹earth?”

¹⁷Then Yahweh said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; ^afor you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.” ¹⁸^aThen ¹Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” ¹⁹And He said, “^aI Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you; and ^bI will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” ²⁰But He said, “You cannot see My face, ^afor no man can see Me and live!” ²¹Then Yahweh said, “Behold, there is a place ¹by Me, and ^ayou shall stand there on the rock; ²²and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and ^acover you with My hand until I have passed by. ²³“Then I will remove My hand, and you shall see My back, but ^aMy face shall not be seen.”

Stone Tablets like the Former Ones

34Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Carve out for yourself ^atwo stone tablets like the former ones, and ^bI will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. ²“So be prepared by morning, and come up in the morning to ^aMount Sinai, and ¹present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. ³“^aAnd no man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen ¹anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.” ⁴So he carved out ^atwo stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. ⁵^aThen Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him, and ¹He called upon the name of Yahweh. ⁶Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, ^acompassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and ¹truth; ⁷who ^akeeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He ^bwill by no means leave the guilty unpunished, ^cvisiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” ⁸And Moses made haste ¹^,^ato bow low toward the earth and worship. ⁹And he said, “^aIf now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though ¹^,^bthey are a stiff-necked people, and ^cpardon our iniquity and our sin, and ^dtake us as Your own inheritance.”

Yahweh Cuts a Covenant with Israel

¹⁰Then ¹God said, “Behold, ^aI am going to cut a covenant. Before all your people ^bI will do wondrous deeds which have not been created in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people ²among whom you live will see the working of Yahweh, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to do with you.

¹¹“¹Be sure to keep what I am commanding you this day: behold, ^aI am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ¹²“^aBeware lest you cut a covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. ¹³“^aBut rather, you are to tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut down their ¹^,^bAsherim ¹⁴—for ^ayou shall not worship any other god, for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— ¹⁵lest you cut a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and ^asacrifice to their gods, and one of them ^binvite you ¹to eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶and ^ayou take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. ¹⁷“^aYou shall make for yourself no molten gods.

¹⁸“You shall keep ^athe Feast of Unleavened Bread. For ^bseven days you shall eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ^cmonth of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹“^aThe first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, even of all your male livestock, the first offspring from ¹cattle and sheep. ²⁰“^aAnd you shall redeem with a lamb the ¹first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem ^ball the firstborn of your sons. ²^,^cNone shall appear before Me empty-handed.

²¹“You shall work ^asix days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. ²²“And you shall celebrate ^athe Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. ²³“^aThree times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. ²⁴“For I will ^adispossess nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before Yahweh your God.

²⁵“^aYou shall not ¹offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, ^band the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover shall not ²be left over until morning.

²⁶“You shall bring ^athe very first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷Then Yahweh said to Moses, “^aWrite ¹down these words, for in accordance with these words I have cut ^ba covenant with you and with Israel.” ²⁸So he was there with Yahweh ^aforty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And ¹^,^bhe wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, ^cthe Ten ²Commandments.

The Shining Face of Moses

²⁹Now it happened when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the ^atwo tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that ^bthe skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. ³⁰Then Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and ^athey were afraid to come near him. ³¹Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. ³²And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them everything that Yahweh had spoken ¹to him on Mount Sinai. ³³Then Moses finished speaking with them and ^aput a veil over his face. ³⁴But whenever Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with Him, ^ahe would take off the veil until he came out; and then he would come out and speak to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, ³⁵^aand the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would return the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.