³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, ^(A)“You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; ^(B)perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, ^(C)this people has sinned a great sin. They have ^(D)made for themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, if ^(E)you will forgive their sin—but if not, please ^(F)blot me out of ^(G)your book that you have written.” ³³ But the Lord said to Moses, ^(H)“Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. ^34 (I)But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; ^(J)behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

The Command to Leave Sinai

33 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you ^(A)and 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 ^(B)your offspring I will give it.’ ² I will send an ^(C)angel before you, ^(D)and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ^3 (E)Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ^(F)but I will not go up among you, ^(G)lest I consume you on the way, for you are a ^(H)stiff-necked people.”

⁴ When the people heard this disastrous word, they ^(I)mourned, and ^(J)no one put on his ornaments. ⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a ^(K)stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would ^(L)consume you. So now ^(M)take 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.

Moses' Intercession

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^(A)you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ^(B)‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please ^(C)show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is ^(D)your people.” ¹⁴ And he said, ^(E)“My presence will go with you, and ^(F)I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ And he said to him, ^(G)“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? ^(H)Is it not in your going with us, ^(I)so 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, ^(J)for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸ Moses said, “Please ^(K)show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And he said, ^(L)“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And ^(M)I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for ^(N)man shall not see me and live.” ²¹ And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²² and while my glory passes by I will put you in a ^(O)cleft of the rock, and I will ^(P)cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall ^(Q)not be seen.”

⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ^(A)“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and ^(B)gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast ^(C)love and faithfulness, ^7 (D)keeping steadfast love for thousands,^{[a] (E)}forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but ^(F)who will by no means clear the guilty, ^(G)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” ⁸ And Moses quickly ^(H)bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. ⁹ And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please ^(I)let the Lord go in the midst of us, for ^(J)it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for ^(K)your inheritance.”