Exodus 33:12-34:10

English Standard Version

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.”

Moses Makes New Tablets

34 The Lord said to Moses, ^(R)“Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, ^(S)and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, ^(T)which you broke. ² Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me ^(U)on the top of the mountain. ³ No ^(V)one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” ⁴ So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. ⁵ The Lord ^(W)descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and ^(X)proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ^(Y)“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and ^(Z)gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast ^(AA)love and faithfulness, ^7 (AB)keeping steadfast love for thousands,^{[a] (AC)}forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but ^(AD)who will by no means clear the guilty, ^(AE)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 ^(AF)bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. ⁹ And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please ^(AG)let the Lord go in the midst of us, for ^(AH)it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for ^(AI)your inheritance.”

The Covenant Renewed

¹⁰ And he said, “Behold, ^(AJ)I am making a covenant. Before all your people ^(AK)I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an ^(AL)awesome thing that I will do with you.