Exodus 33 - 34 - Legacy Standard Bible

Exodus 33 - 34

Moses and the Tent of Meeting

Then 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 I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘To your seed I will give it.’ 2 And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst because you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.” 4 Then the people heard this sad word and went into mourning; and none of them put on his ornaments. 5 So Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are a 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.’” 6 So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. 7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought Yahweh would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. 8 And 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. 9 And it happened whenever Moses entered the tent, that the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and Yahweh would speak with Moses. 10 And 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. 11 Thus Yahweh used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, and his attendant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses and the Glory of Yahweh

12 Then Moses said to Yahweh, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, 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, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. See also, that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If 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 we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” 17 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” 19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” 21 Then Yahweh said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

Stone Tablets like the Former Ones

Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I 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 Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. 3 And no man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.” 4 So he carved out two 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 Then Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him, and He called upon the name of Yahweh. 6 Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 8 And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though they are a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own inheritance.”

Yahweh Cuts a Covenant with Israel

10 Then God said, “Behold, I am going to cut a covenant. Before all your people I will do wondrous deeds which have not been created in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of Yahweh, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to do with you. 11 “Be sure to keep what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12 Beware 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 But rather, you are to tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 —for you shall not worship any other god, for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— 15 lest you cut a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invite you to eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you 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 You shall make for yourself no molten gods. 18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. 19 “The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, even of all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. 20 And you shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed. 21 “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. 22 And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. 23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. 24 For I will dispossess 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 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, and the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover shall not be left over until morning. 26 “You shall bring the 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.” 27 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have cut a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

The Shining Face of Moses

29 Now it happened when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. 30 Then Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. 32 And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them everything that Yahweh had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. 33 Then Moses finished speaking with them and put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with Him, he 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 and 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.