Exodus 33:3

3 [Go] to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, because you [are] a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way."

Exodus 33:3 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 33:3

Unto a land flowing with milk and honey
Abounding with all the necessaries and good things of life, a description of the land of Canaan frequently made, see ( Exodus 3:8 ) :

for I will not go up in the midst of thee;
would not grant them his presence in so near, visible, and respectable a manner as he had before done, though he would not utterly forsake them: the tabernacle was before in the midst of the camp, that is, that which was erected until the large one, ordered to be made, was finished, but now it was removed without the camp, ( Exodus 33:7 )

for thou art a stiffnecked people; (See Gill on Exodus 32:9):

lest I consume them in the way;
in the way to the land of Canaan, and so never get there; the meaning is, that the Lord being in the midst of them, their sin would be the more aggravated to be committed in his presence, before his face; and the glory of his majesty would require that immediate notice be taken of it, and just punishment inflicted; so that by this step God both consulted his own honour and their safety.

Exodus 33:3 In-Context

1 And Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your offspring.'

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

3 [Go] to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, because you [are] a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way."

4 And the people heard this troubling word, and they mourned, and they each did not put their ornaments on themselves.

5 And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to the {Israelites}, 'You [are] a stiff-necked people; [if] one moment I were to go up among you, I would destroy you. And now take down your ornaments from on you, and I will {decide} what I will do to you."