The Command to Leave Sinai
1
The LORD said to Moses, "Depart; go up from here, you 1and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To 2your offspring I will give it.'
2
I will send an 3angel before you, 4and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
3
5Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; 6but I will not go up among you, 7lest I consume you on the way, for you are a 8stiff-necked people."
5
For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, 'You are a 11stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would 12consume you. So now 13take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.'"
6
Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
The Tent of Meeting
7
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and 14he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who 15sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
8
Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and 16each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.
9
When Moses entered the tent, the 17pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD a would speak with Moses.
10
And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door.
11
Thus 18the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his 19assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
Moses' Intercession
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Moses said to the LORD, "See, 20you say to me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 21'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'
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Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please 22show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is 23your people."
16
For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? 27Is it not in your going with us, 28so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?"
17
And the LORD said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, 29for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
19
And he said, 31"I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And 32I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
21
And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock,
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)