Exodus 33:12-22

Moses' Intercession

12 Moses said to the LORD, "See, ¹you say to me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ²'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 ³show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is ⁴your people."

14 And he said, ⁵"My presence will go with you, and ⁶I will give you rest."

15 And he said to him, ⁷"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? ⁸Is it not in your going with us, ⁹so 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, ¹⁰for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."

18 Moses said, "Please ¹¹show me your glory."

19 And he said, ¹²"I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And ¹³I 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 ¹⁴man 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 ¹⁵cleft of the rock, and I will ¹⁶cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Exodus 33:12-22 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. Exodus 32:34
• 2. ver. 17
• 3. Psalms 25:4; [Psalms 103:7]
• 4. Deuteronomy 9:29; [Joel 2:17]
• 5. Joshua 1:5; Isaiah 63:9; See Exodus 40:34-38
• 6. Deuteronomy 3:20; Joshua 21:44; Joshua 22:4; Joshua 23:1; [Psalms 95:11]
• 7. [ver. 1-3]
• 8. Numbers 14:14
• 9. Exodus 19:5, 6; 1 Kings 8:53
• 10. ver. 12, 13
• 11. [ver. 20; 1 Timothy 6:16]
• 12. Psalms 31:19; Jeremiah 31:14; [Exodus 34:5-7]
• 13. Cited Romans 9:15
• 14. Genesis 32:30; Deuteronomy 5:24; Judges 6:22, 23; Judges 13:22; Isaiah 6:5; Revelation 1:17; [Exodus 24:10, 11]
• 15. Isaiah 2:21
• 16. Psalms 91:1, 4