Exodus 33:12-23

Moses Intercedes

12 Then Moses said to the LORD, "See, You say to me, '¹Bring up this people!' But You Yourself have not let me know ²whom You will send with me. ³Moreover, You have said, 'I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.'

13 "Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, ⁴let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. ⁵Consider too, that this nation is Your people."

14 And He said, "⁶My presence shall go with you, and ⁷I will give you rest."

15 Then he said to Him, "⁸If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.

16 "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that ⁹we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"

17 The LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; ¹⁰for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name."

18 ¹¹Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!"

19 And He said, "¹²I Myself will make all My goodness pass before * you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and ¹³I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."

20 But He said, "You cannot * see My face, ¹⁴for no man can see Me and live!"

21 Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and ¹⁵you shall stand there on the rock;

22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and ¹⁶cover you with My hand until I have passed by.

23 "Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but ¹⁷My face shall not be seen."

Exodus 33:12-23 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 3:10; Exodus 32:34
• 2. Exodus 33:2
• 3. Exodus 33:17
• 4. Psalms 25:4; Psalms 27:11; Psalms 51:13; Psalms 86:11; Psalms 119:33
• 5. Exodus 3:7, 10; Exodus 5:1; Exodus 32:12, 14; Deuteronomy 9:26, 29
• 6. Deuteronomy 4:37; Isaiah 63:9
• 7. Deuteronomy 12:10; Deuteronomy 25:19; Joshua 21:44; Joshua 22:4
• 8. Ps 80:3, 7, 19
• 9. Leviticus 20:24, 26
• 10. Exodus 33:12
• 11. Exodus 33:20-23
• 12. Exodus 34:6, 7
• 13. Romans 9:15
• 14. Isaiah 6:5; 1 Timothy 6:16
• 15. Psalms 18:2, 46; Psalms 27:5; Psalms 61:2; Psalms 62:7
• 16. Psalms 91:1, 4; Isaiah 49:2; Isaiah 51:16
• 17. Exodus 33:20; John 1:18

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "ground"
• [b] Lit "he"
• [c] Lit "with"