Exodus 33:7-23

English Standard Version

The Tent of Meeting

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and ^(A)he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who ^(B)sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and ^(C)each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. ⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the ^(D)pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord^[a] would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. ¹¹ Thus ^(E)the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his ^(F)assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses' Intercession

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^(G)you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ^(H)‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please ^(I)show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is ^(J)your people.” ¹⁴ And he said, ^(K)“My presence will go with you, and ^(L)I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ And he said to him, ^(M)“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? ^(N)Is it not in your going with us, ^(O)so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, ^(P)for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸ Moses said, “Please ^(Q)show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And he said, ^(R)“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And ^(S)I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for ^(T)man shall not see me and live.” ²¹ And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²² and while my glory passes by I will put you in a ^(U)cleft of the rock, and I will ^(V)cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall ^(W)not be seen.”