Chapter Thirty-Three

1–6. God’s command to the people to continue their journey and provision of an Angel to lead them. 7–10. Setting up of the tabernacle outside the camp. 11–17. The Lord’s mercy toward Moses. 18–23. Moses asks to see the Lord’s glory.

Exodus 33:1. And the Lord said to Moses: “Go, depart from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: to your descendants I will give it; Exodus 33:2. and I will send an Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Gibeonites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, Exodus 33:3. and he will bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey; but I Myself will not go in your midst, lest I destroy you on the way, because you are a stiff-necked people. With the rejection of its lawgiver-God, the people have no necessity or incentive to remain at the mountain of the law-giving, the dwelling place of the Most High (Exod 19); it can proceed further on the way toward the promised land: “go, depart from here, you and the people.” To enter it, they must do so by virtue of the immutable oath sworn by God to the patriarchs. The fulfillment of this latter does not, however, permit the possibility of the Lord’s presence among the Hebrews, for He will not tolerate further manifestations of the people’s stiff-neckedness and will destroy them on the way before they reach Canaan (Exod 33:3). But since, on the other hand, the Hebrews cannot possess it without divine aid, an Angel is sent to them by God. The latter is not already the Angel of the Most High, or of the covenant (Exod 23:20), and therefore his presence differs from the dwelling of God Himself among the people. First of all, it has a temporary character—it will last only until the inhabitants of Canaan are driven from their lands; second, it will not be accompanied by any communion with the people: “the angel will go before the people” (cf. Exod 23:20-22) and, third, it will not require holiness from Israel: the stiff-neckedness of the people will not hinder the angel’s presence before the people (Exod 33:3, cf. Exod 23:21). But if the One Who Is is not present among the Hebrews, they cease to be a chosen people and become equal to the rest of the nations. Therefore Moses says later: “if You will go with us, then I and Your people will be more glorious than any people on earth” (Exod 33:16).

Exodus 33:4. When the people heard this fearsome word, they wept, and no one put on their adornments. Left by God, Israel recognized its own weakness among the other mighty nations of the earth; it understood that, left to its own strength, it had no future but the same slavery and oppression it had endured in Egypt. This realization awakened a feeling of repentance in them, manifested in weeping and unwillingness to put on their adornments.

Exodus 33:5. For the Lord said to Moses: “Say to the children of Israel: You are a stiff-necked people; if I go in your midst for one moment, I will destroy you; therefore take off your adornments from yourselves; I will see what I will do with you. Exodus 33:6. The children of Israel took off their adornments at Mount Horeb. The repentance awakened by the consciousness of impending disaster, although it does not annul the divine decree, yet when manifested with God’s consent in a more intensified form—“take off your adornments”—offers some hope of possible pardon: “I will see what I will do with you.” As a sign of repentance and sorrow, the Hebrews take off their precious garments and valuable adornments (cf. John 3:6-7) and place them at the foot of the mountain, thereby saying that henceforth they dedicate them solely to God and will no longer make from them, as before, images of pagan gods.

Exodus 33:7. But Moses took and set up a tent for himself outside the camp, at a distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting; and anyone seeking the Lord would go to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp. The visible token of God’s dwelling among Israel, and consequently of its status as a chosen people, was the appearance and revelation of the Lord among the people. But since it is now deprived of the status and rights of a chosen people—the Most High does not dwell in its midst—in sign of this, Moses takes out of the camp the tent in which God appears to him. This tent was neither a permanent dwelling place of Moses—he came to it from the camp to receive revelation and then returned (Exod 33:8-11)—nor the tabernacle that would later be established; it was the reception tent of the leader of Israel.

Exodus 33:8. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand at the entrance of their tents and watch as Moses went, until he entered the tent. Exodus 33:9. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance to the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses. Exodus 33:10. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent; and all the people rose and bowed down, each at the entrance of their tent. The result of Moses’ measure was an intensification of the people’s repentance. The people, who had been indifferent to the earlier call “Who is for the Lord, come to me!” (Exod 32:26), now strive toward God, seek Him (Exod 33:7), and express feelings of respect for their chosen leader Moses; they who once bowed to the golden calf now bow to the Lord, displaying His presence in the pillar of cloud.

Exodus 33:11. And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks to his friend; and he returned to the camp; but his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent. Since, according to the Lord’s own words, man cannot see the Lord’s face and remain alive (Exod 33:20), the expression in this verse points to the high moral perfection of Moses, which allowed him to approach mentally and morally the source of all wisdom and truth and to draw in this mysterious communion superhuman wisdom. Joshua’s proximity to Moses prepares him for his future role as leader of the Hebrew people.

Exodus 33:12. Moses said to the Lord: “Behold, You are telling me: ‘Lead this people,’ yet You have not let me know whom You will send with me, although You said: ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in My eyes;’ Moses was aware of the divine promise to send an Angel (Exod 33:2), but he did not know whether “the name of the Lord” would be on him or not. Therefore the question about the name was equivalent to asking: will the Lord Himself go with Israel, or will He leave it in the guidance of a created Angel? In other words—will the Hebrews remain a chosen people or not? Their further fate should be known to Moses as a leader called to this office by God Himself: “I know you by name” (cf. Exod 3:4), and the Lord can reveal it by virtue of His favor toward him: “you have found favor in My eyes.”

Exodus 33:13. Therefore, if I have found favor in Your eyes, please show me Your way, that I may know You, and that I may find favor in Your eyes; and consider that this people is Your people. The Lord can reveal His will and His determinations (“ways”) to Moses by virtue of His favor toward him; but Israel, being the people of God, deserves such mercy as well: “this people is Your people.”

Exodus 33:14. “The Lord said to him: “I Myself will go and will bring you to rest. As is evident from Exod 34:6 and others, the Most High’s determination that He will go and bring them to rest—that is, to the promised land (Deut 3:20, Josh 1:13)—is based on His inexpressible mercy.

Exodus 33:15. “Moses said to Him: “If You will not go with us Yourself, then do not bring us up from here, Exodus 33:16. for how shall it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your eyes? Is it not in that You go with us? Then I and Your people will be more glorious than any people on earth. Although the promise of Exod 33:14 was given personally to Moses, he nevertheless refers it to the people as well. As he could not earlier allow the thought of the people’s destruction without taking part in it himself, so now he does not acknowledge that God’s mercy was shown to him alone. On the contrary, it guarantees the manifestation of divine mercy to all Israel. Otherwise the Hebrews would have no need to depart from Sinai and enter into “rest.” The promised land is not the true goal of the people’s desires, but communion with God. Moses is ready to renounce Palestine for the people, only to preserve for them that position which exalted them above all other nations: “Is it not in that I and Your people will be more glorious than any people on earth, that You go with us?”

Exodus 33:17. And the Lord said to Moses: “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, because you have found favor in My eyes, and I know you by name. Since Moses asked the Lord to go with the people—not to strip it of its status as a chosen people—the words, “I will do the thing of which you speak,” point to the fulfillment of the prophet’s request and desires.

Exodus 33:18. “Moses said: “Show me Your glory. Having heard of the fulfillment of his request, Moses desires to enjoy the contemplation of Him who has shown love and mercy toward the Hebrew people.

Exodus 33:19. And the Lord said: “I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will show compassion to whom I will show compassion. Exodus 33:20. And He said: “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live. Exodus 33:21. And the Lord said: “Behold, there is a place near Me; stand on the rock; Exodus 33:22. “and when My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by; Exodus 33:23. “and then I will remove My hand, and you shall see Me from behind; but My face shall not be seen. The Lord does not refuse the prophet’s request, but warns him that man cannot see the Lord; Moses only hears the voice pronouncing the sacred name of the Most High and explaining His actions in His relations with mankind in general and Israel in particular (cf. Rom 9:15). As having no possibility of contemplating the Lord, Moses will see only the reflection of divine glory: “you shall see Me from behind.”