Exodus 33 Footnotes

33:11 If the Lord spoke face to face with Moses, why does the book later suggest that Moses never saw his face (33:20-23)? On three occasions the Bible states that God spoke “face to face” with Moses (33:11; Nm 12:8; Dt 5:4). However, it is also clear that this expression was not meant to be taken literally; in the book of Numbers, the similar idea of speaking “mouth to mouth” (lit.) is equated with “openly, and not in riddles” (Nm 12:8). For a discussion of Moses’s seeing God, see note on Ex 3:6.