Exodus 33:1-6

The Command to Leave Sinai

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you ¹and 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 ²your offspring I will give it. ’

2 I will send an ³angel before you, ⁴and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

3 ⁵Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ⁶but I will not go up among you, ⁷lest I consume you on the way, for you are a ⁸stiff-necked people. ”

4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they ⁹mourned, and ¹⁰no one put on his ornaments.

5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a ¹¹stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would ¹²consume you. So now ¹³take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you. ’”

6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

Exodus 33:1-6 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. 33:1 ch. 32:7
• 2. 33:1 ch. 32:13; See Gen. 12:7
• 3. 33:2 See ch. 14:19
• 4. 33:2 See ch. 13:5
• 5. 33:3 See ch. 3:8
• 6. 33:3 [ver. 15-17]
• 7. 33:3 ch. 32:10; Num. 16:21, 45
• 8. 33:3 See ch. 32:9
• 9. 33:4 Num. 14:39
• 10. 33:4 [Ezek. 24:17, 23; 26:16]
• 11. 33:5 [See ver. 3 above]
• 12. 33:5 ch. 32:12
• 13. 33:5 [See ver. 4 above]