1The LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place and go up, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt. Go to the land I promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.'"
2"I will send an angel ahead of you. I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite."
3"Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people. If I did, I might destroy you on the way."
4When the people heard this bad news, they mourned. No one put on his ornaments.
5For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I came up among you for one moment, I would destroy you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you.'"
6So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.
7Moses took the tabernacle and set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. Everyone who wanted to seek the LORD went out to the tabernacle of the congregation, which was outside the camp.
8Whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, all the people got up. Each man stood at the door of his tent and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
9As Moses went into the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud came down and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
10All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door. Then all the people rose and worshipped, each man at his tent door.
11The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses returned to the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tabernacle.
12Moses said to the LORD, "See, you say to me, 'Bring this people up,' 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 grace in my sight.'"
13"So now, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me your way, so that I may know you and may find grace in your sight. And remember that this nation is your people."
14And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
15Moses said to him, "If your presence does not go with me, do not take us up from here."
16"How else will anyone know that I and your people have found grace in your sight? Is it not by your going with us? In this way we will be different, I and your people, from all the people on the face of the earth."
17The LORD said to Moses, "I will do this thing that you have asked, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name."
18And Moses said, "I beg you, show me your glory."
19And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy."
20And he said, "You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
21And the LORD said, "Look, there is a place beside me, and you shall stand on a rock."
22"While my glory passes by, I will put you in a crack in the rock, and I will cover you with my hand while I pass by."
23"Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back parts. But my face shall not be seen."