출애굽기 33

A grim message and the tent outside the camp

¹The LORD said to Moses, “Move on from here, you and the people whom you led up out of the land of Egypt. Head for the land I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the land of which I said, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ ²I will send an angel ahead of you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ³Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you myself, since you are a stiff-necked people, and I might put an end to you on the road.” ⁴The people heard this grim message and grieved; not one of them put on their ornaments. ⁵The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up among you even for a moment, I would put an end to you. So take off your ornaments now, and then I will settle what I am going to do about you.’”^{a 6}So from Mount Horeb onward the Israelites went without their ornaments.^{b 7}Moses made a practice of taking the tent and setting it up outside the camp, well away from it. He named it the tent of meeting. Whoever wanted to seek the LORD went out to the tent of meeting beyond the camp. ⁸When Moses set out for the tent, the whole people got to their feet. They stood, everyone at the door of their own tent, and followed Moses with their eyes until he went in. ⁹Each time Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud came down and took its place at the tent’s entrance, and the LORD spoke with Moses. ¹⁰Seeing the pillar of cloud at the tent’s entrance, the whole people would stand up and then bow low, everyone at the door of their own tent. ¹¹The LORD would speak with Moses face to face, the way a person talks with a friend. Moses then went back to the camp; but Joshua son of Nun, the young man who served him, stayed in the tent and did not leave it.

Moses asks for God’s presence

¹²Moses said to the LORD, “You tell me, ‘Bring this people up,’ yet you have not made known to me who is to go with me. You have also said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in my sight.’ ¹³Now, if I really stand in your favor, please show me your ways. Then I will know you, and I will go on finding favor with you. And keep in mind that this nation belongs to you as your people.” ¹⁴The LORD answered, “My own presence will go along, and I will bring you to rest.”^{c 15}Moses said to him, “Unless your presence goes with us, do not make us leave this place. ¹⁶How else will anyone know that you look with favor on me and on your people? Is it not by your going with us? That is what sets me and your people apart from every other people on the face of the earth.”

Moses asks to see God’s glory

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses, “This request too, the one you have just made, I will grant, because you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name.” ¹⁸Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.” ¹⁹The LORD answered, “I will make all my goodness go past you, and I will announce the name ‘The LORD’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.” ²⁰He went on, “My face you cannot see. No human being can see me and stay alive.” ²¹The LORD said, “There is a place beside me. You are to stand there on the rock. ²²While my glory is going by, I will tuck you into a cleft of the rock and shelter you with my hand until I have gone past. ²³When I draw back my hand, you will see my back. But my face will not be seen.”