Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your seed.’
I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.”
When the people heard this sad news they mourned, and no one put on his jewelry.
Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.’”
The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.
The Tent of Meeting
Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it “The Tent of Meeting.” It came to pass that everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the Tent of Meeting that was outside the camp.
And when Moses went out to the Tent, all the people rose up and stood, everyone at their tent entrance, and watched Moses until he had gone into the Tent.
It came to pass, when Moses entered into the Tent that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the entrance of the Tent, and spoke with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the entrance of the Tent and all the people got up and bowed down, everyone at their tent entrance.
Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart out of the Tent.
Moses' Intercession
Moses said to Yahweh, “Behold, you tell me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my eyes.’
Now therefore, if I have found favor in your eyes, please now show me your ways so that I may know you in order to continue to find favor in your eyes. Consider also that this nation is your people.”
He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
He said to him, “If your presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here.
For how would people know that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your people? Is it not in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”
Yahweh said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name.”
He said, “Please show me your glory.”
He said, “I will make all my goodness pass by in front of you and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
But he said, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.”
Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you are to stand on the rock.
It will happen while my glory passes by that I will put you in a cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;
then I will take away my hand and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.”