The Command to Leave Sinai

¹The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you oand the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To pyour offspring I will give it.’ ²I will send an qangel before you, rand I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ³sGo up to a land flowing with milk and honey; tbut I will not go up among you, ulest I consume you on the way, for you are a vstiff-necked people.”

⁴When the people heard this disastrous word, they wmourned, and xno one put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a vstiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would yconsume you. So now xtake off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” ⁶Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The Tent of Meeting

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and zhe called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who asought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and beach would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. ⁹When Moses entered the tent, the cpillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord1 would speak with Moses. ¹⁰And 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. ¹¹Thus dthe Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his eassistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses' Intercession

¹²Moses said to the Lord, “See, fyou say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, g‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please hshow me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is iyour people.” ¹⁴And he said, j“My presence will go with you, and kI will give you rest.” ¹⁵And he said to him, l“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? mIs it not in your going with us, nso that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, ofor you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸Moses said, “Please pshow me your glory.” ¹⁹And he said, q“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And rI will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ²⁰But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for sman shall not see me and live.” ²¹And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²²and while my glory passes by I will put you in a tcleft of the rock, and I will ucover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall vnot be seen.”