Exodus 33:15-16

15 And he said to him, ¹“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? ²Is it not in your going with us, ³so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? ”

Exodus 33:15-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 33

This chapter informs us, that the Lord refusing to go with the people, only sending an angel with them, they are filled with concern, and troubled, Ex 33:1-6. Moses upon this pitched the tabernacle without the camp, where everyone that sought the Lord went; Moses entered into it himself, and the Lord talked to him in a friendly manner in the cloudy pillar that stood at the door of it, and the people worshipped, every man at his own tent door; all which foreboded good, and tended to reconciliation, Ex 33:7-11. Moses improved the opportunity, and entreats the presence of God to go with them, which was granted, Ex 33:12-17 and that he might have a sight of the glory of God; and this is promised to pass before him, he being put into the cleft of the rock, Ex 33:18-23.

Cross References

• 1. 33:15 [ver. 1-3]
• 2. 33:16 Num. 14:14
• 3. 33:16 ch. 19:5, 6; 1 Kgs. 8:53