Exodus 33:16-17

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 ¹we, 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; ²for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name."

Exodus 33:16-17 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. Leviticus 20:24, 26
• 2. Exodus 33:12

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "ground"