The Lord’s Glory

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you have told me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You said, ‘I know you by name,^(A) and you have also found favor with me.’ ¹³ Now if I have indeed found favor with you, please teach me your ways,^(B) and I will know you, so that I may find favor with you. Now consider that this nation is your people.”^(C)

¹⁴ And he replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”^(D)

¹⁵ “If your presence does not go,” Moses responded to him, “don’t make us go up from here. ¹⁶ How will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us? I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.”^(E)

¹⁷ The Lord answered Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.”^(F)

¹⁹ He said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name ‘the Lord’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”^{(G) 20} But he added, “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see^(H) me and live.” ²¹ The Lord said, “Here is a place near me. You are to stand on the rock, ²² and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.^{(I) 23} Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.”

⁵ The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” ⁶ The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,^{(A) 7} maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.^(B) But he will not leave the guilty^(C) unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

⁸ Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. ⁹ Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.”^(D)

Moses’s Radiant Face

²⁹ As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord.^{[a](A) 30} When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone!^(B) They were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,^{(C) 35} and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face^[b] was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.

The Transfiguration

17 After six days^(A) Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.^{(B) 2} He was transfigured in front of them, and his face shone like the sun; his clothes became as white as the light.^{(C) 3} Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. ⁴ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here. If you want, I will set up^[a] three shelters here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”^(D)

⁵ While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered^[b] them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!” ^{(E) 6} When the disciples^(F) heard this, they fell facedown and were terrified.

⁷ Jesus came up, touched them, and said, “Get up; don’t be afraid.”^(G)

New Covenant Ministry

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory,^(A) so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. ¹⁰ In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what was set aside^(B) was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

¹² Since, then, we have such a hope,^(C) we act with great boldness. ¹³ We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face^(D) to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end^[a] of the glory of what was being set aside, ¹⁴ but their minds were hardened.^(E) For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant,^(F) the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.^{(G) 15} Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, ¹⁶ but whenever a person turns^(H) to the Lord, the veil is removed.^{(I) 17} Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at^[b](J) the glory of the Lord^(K) and are being transformed^(L) into the same image^(M) from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.^[c]