1Then Yahweh spoke to Moses: “Go, go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘To your seed I will give it.’
2And I will send a messenger before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
3to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.”
4When the people heard this evil word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.
5For Yahweh had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. In one moment I could go up in your midst and consume you. So now, take off your ornaments from upon you, that I may know what I will do with you.’”
6So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.
7Now Moses would take the tent and pitch it for himself outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. And it happened that everyone who sought Yahweh would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.
8And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at the entrance of his own tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.
9And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the entrance of the tent, and He 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 rise and bow down, each at the entrance of his own tent.
11And Yahweh would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then he would return to the camp, but his attendant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from within the tent.
12Then Moses said to Yahweh, “See, 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, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My eyes.’
13Now then, if I have indeed found favor in Your eyes, please let me know Your ways, that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your eyes. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
14And He said, “My presence will go, and I will give you rest.”
15And he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go, do not bring us up from here.
16For how then shall it be known that I have found favor in Your eyes, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we are distinguished, I and Your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”
17And Yahweh said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in My eyes, and I have known you by name.”
18And he said, “Please show me Your glory.”
19And He said, “I Myself will cause all My goodness to pass before your face, 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 to whom I will show compassion.”
20And He said, “You cannot see My face, for no human can see Me and live.”
21And Yahweh said, “Behold, there is a place beside Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22And it will happen, when My glory passes by, that I will place you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My palm until I have passed by.
23Then I will remove My palm, and you will see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
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