Exodus 33:1-23

Exodus 33:1-23

Exodus 33

Exodus 33:1-23

1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

1. Loquutus autem fuerat Jehova ad Mosen: Vade, ascende hinc tu et populus quem eduxisti e terra AEgypti in terram de qua juravi ipsi Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, dicendo, Semini tuo dabo eam.

2. And I will send an Angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Arnorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite;

2. Et mittam ante to Angelum, et ejiciam Chananaeum, et Amorrhaeum, et Hitthaeum, et Perizaeum, Hivaeum, et Jebusaeum.

3. Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

3. Ad terram scilicet fluentem lacte et melle. Non enim ascendam in medio tui (nam populus durae cervicis es) ne forte consumam to in via.

4. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

4. Audiens autem populus verbum hoc malum, luxerunt: nec posuit quisquam ornamentum suum super se.

5. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people; I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

5. Dixerat enim Jehova ad Mosen, Die filiis Israel, Vos estis populus durae cervicis: momento uno ascendam in medium tui, et consumam te. Nunc ergo depone ornamentum tuum a te, et sciam quid faciam tibi.

6. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

6. Et spoliaverunt se filii Israel ornamentis suis a monte Horeb.

7. And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it The Tabernacle of the Congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

7. Moses autem accepit tabernaculum, et extendit illud sibi extra castra, procul a castris: (vocaverat autem illud tabernaculum conventionis) et quicunque requirebat Jehovam, egrediebatur ad tabernaculum conventionis quod erat extra castra.

8. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent-door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

8. Praeterea quando egrediebatur Moses ad tabernaculum, assurgebat universus populus: stabantque singuli ad ostium tentorii sui, et aspiciebant post Mosen, donec ingrederetur tabernaculum.

9. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

9. Erat autem quando egrediebatur Moses tabernaculum, descendebat columna nubis, stabatque ad ostium tabernaculi, et loquebatur eum Mose.

10. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle-door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent-door.

10. Videns vero universus populus columnam nubis stantem ad ostium tabernaculi, assurgebat universus populus, et adorabat quisque ad ostium tentorii sui.

11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

11. Et loquebatur Jehova facie ad faciem, quemadmodum alloquitur quispiam amicum sumn: postea revertebatur ad castra, at minister ejus Jehosua filius Nun juvenis non recedebat e medio tabernaculi.

12. And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me: yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.

12. Et dixit Moses ad Jehovam, Vide tu dicis mihi, Educ populum hunc, et tu non indicasti mihi quem missurus sis mecum. Atqui tu dixisti, Novi te ex nomine, atque etiam invenisti gratiam in oculis meis.

13. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight; and consider that this nation is thy people.

13. Nunc ergo si modo inveni gratiam in oculis tuis, ostende quaeso mihi viam tuam et cognoscam to, atque inventare gratiam in oculis ruts, et vide quod populus tuus sit gens ista.

14. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

14. Et dixit, Facies mea praecedet, et requiescere faciam te.

15. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

15. Cui respondit, Nisi facies tua praecedat, ne educas nos hinc.

16. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

16. Et (certe) qua in re notum erit hic quod invenerim gratiam in oculis tuis ego, et populus tuus? nonne quum ambulaveris nobiscum, et separabimur ego et populus tuus ab omni populo qui est super faciem terrae?

17. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

17. Et dixit Jehova ad Mosen, Etiam rem hanc quam dixisti faciam: quia invenisti gratiam in oculis meis, et novi te ex nomine.

18. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

18. Adjecitque, Ostende mihi quaso gloriam tuam.

19. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

19. Cui respondit, Ego praeterire faciam omnem decorem meum ante faciem tuam, et vocabo ex nomine Jehovae coram te: et miserebor, cujus miserebor: et clemens ero in quem clemens ero.

20. And he said, Thou canst not my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

20. Dixit praeterea, Non poteris videre faciem meam: quid non videbit me homo, et vivet.

21. And the Lord said,: Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

21. Dixit postremo Jehova, Ecce, locus apud me, et stabis supra petram.

22. And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

22. Erit autem quum pertransibit gloria mea, ponam te in spelunca petrae, et protegam te manu mea donec transiero.

23. And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.

23. Postea removebo manum meam, et videbis posteriors mea, facies vero non videbitur.

1. Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people I have used the pluperfect tense; for the reason is here given, whereby Moses was stirred up to such vehemence in prayer, viz., because, although God had not altogether abandoned the care of the people, still He had renounced His covenant, and had proclaimed to them that, after He had once performed His engagement of giving them possession of the land, He would have no more to do with them. Wherefore, what is here related, preceded, in order of time, the prayer of Moses; for, being astonished at the sad and almost fatal message, he burst forth into that confused and wild request, that he might be blotted out of the book of life.

Note 360. See Lat., “Locutus autem fuerat Jehova;” but the Lord had spoken, etc. Prof. Bush says, “The right adjustment of the events of this chapter in the chronological order of the narrative, is a matter attended with some difficulty. From the rendering of our established version, it would seem that what was now said to Moses was posterior in point of time to the incidents recorded in the close of the preceding chapter; but from an attentive consideration and collation of the tenor of the whole, we are persuaded, with Calvin, and other critics of note, that the proper rendering of ver. 1 is in the pluperfect, ‘The Lord had said,’ and that the appropriate place for the interview and incidents here related is prior to the order and the promise contained in ver. 34 of chap. 32. In that verse God declares his purpose of sending his angel before the people, and we naturally inquire how it happens that such an assurance was necessary? Was there any danger that an angel would not be sent? Had any intimation been given that his guidance and protecting presence would be withdrawn? To this the correct answer undoubtedly is, that all that is related in chap. 33 had occurred anterior to the promise made in chap. 32:34. God had threatened to send Moses and the people forward without the accompanying presence of the angel of the Shekinah, and it was only in consequence of the fervent intercession of Moses that He was induced to retract this dread determination. In the foregoing chapter, therefore, the historian merely, states in a summary way the fact of his earnest prayer, and the concession made to it; in the present, he goes back and relates minutely the train of circumstances which preceded and led to the declaration above mentioned. In doing this he virtually makes known to us one main ground of the urgency of his supplications. He was afraid that God would withdraw the tokens of his visible presence. As a punishment for the mad attempt of the people to supply themselves with a false symbol of his presence, he was apprehensive that God might be provoked to take from them the true, and hence his impassioned entreaty that He would not visit them with so sore a judgment.”

Let us now endeavor to elicit the true meaning of the passage. It is plain, that when God bids Moses depart with the people, He utterly renounces the charge which He Himself had hitherto sustained. He only promises that He will cause them to attain the promised inheritance, and not that He will preside over them, will there preserve them in safety, and even cherish them, as a father does his children; in fact, that he will merely fulfill the promise He had made to their fathers. And thus He anticipates their complaints; for they might reply, that consequently His promise would be rendered vain and ineffectual; but by way of anticipation, He says, that although He should renounce them, still He should maintain this truth, because He will cast out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, so that their abode would be vacant for them. In sum, He repudiates them, that they may no longer count themselves to be His peculiar people, or expect more from Him, than as if they were strangers, He mentions His oath, lest they should accuse Him of faithlessness; as if He had said that He should be discharged from His engagement when they had obtained the land. And thus, whilst depriving them of the hope of salvation, and the grace of adoption, He still asserts the stability and stedfastness of His covenant. I, therefore, understand the word angel in a different sense from that which it has just before, and in many other passages of this book; for, when mention was before made of the angel, the familiar presence of God was denoted by it, nay, it was used interchangeably with the name of God itself. But here God is said to be so about to send the angel, as to separate Himself from the people. “I will not go up (He says) in the midst of thee;” and the reason is subjoined, viz., because it could not be that He could endure any longer their perverse spirits. Again He uses a similitude taken from refractory oxen, which cannot be broken to bear the yoke. The sum is, that because they are so intractable, God cannot perform the office of their guide without straightway destroying them.

4. And when the people heard these evil tidings Hence it more clearly appears that, as I have said, it was like a thunderbolt to them when God withdrew Himself from the people; for this divorce is more fatal than innumerable deaths. It might indeed at first sight seem delightful to be the masters of a rich and fertile land; but dull as the people generally were, God smote them suddenly, so that all its delights became insipid, and its fruitfulness like famine itself, when they perceived that they would be but fatted unto the day of slaughter. A useful piece of instruction is to be gained from hence, viz., that if we neglect God’s favor and are captivated by the sweetness of His blessings, we are ensnared like fishes on a hook. God promised the Israelites what might attract them for a little season: He denied them what they should have alone desired, that He would be their God. The evil tidings affected them with sorrow, for they felt that men cannot be happy unless God be propitious; nay, that nothing can be more wretched than to be alienated from Him. “It is good for me to draw near to God,” (Psalm 73:28,) says David; and elsewhere, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” (Psalm 33:12, and Psalm 144:15;) again, “the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, my lot is fallen in pleasant places.” (Psalm 16:5, 6.) This, therefore, is the climax of all miseries to have God against us, whilst we are fed by His bounty; and consequently the Israelites began to shew some wisdom, when, awaking from their lethargy, they counted all other things as naught, unless God should pursue them with His paternal favor. We infer from the grossness of their stupidity, that it was brought to pass by a special gift of God, that they were affected with such sorrow as to conduct them to a solemn mourning. First, Moses says that they did not put on their ornaments, and then that they were commanded by God to put them off; but this will be perfectly consistent if we take the latter as explanatory, as if he had said that they did not wear their ornaments because God had forbidden it, by enjoining them to mourn.

God here assumes the character of an angry judge, preparing to inflict vengeance in His wrath, in the words, “I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee;” in order that their alarm may humble them the more, and stir them up to earnest prayer. It was avisible sign of mourning to He in squalidhess and uncleanness, that thus their penitence might be openly testified; for there was no efficacy in the rite and ceremony to propitiate God, except in so far as the inward affection of the mind manifested itself by a true and genuine confession. For we must bear in mind what God requires by Joel, (2:13,) that we should “rend our heart, and not our garments;” nevertheless, whilst He cares not for the outward appearance, nay, whilst He abominates hypocrisy, still, if the sinner has truly repented, it cannot be but that, humbly acknowledging his guilt, he will add the outward profession of it. For if Paul, who was guiltless of any offense, deemed that the Corinthians were to be mourned for by him when they had not “repented of their uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness,” because God humbled him in their sin, (2 Corinthians 12:21;) how should not those mourn publicly who are conscious of their own guilt, especially when, being convicted by the judgment of men, they are summoned to the tribunal of God? And therefore it is not without reason that he elsewhere teaches, that the sorrow which worketh repentance should also bring forth these other fruits, viz., carefulness, clearing of themselves, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, revenge. (2 Corinthians 7:10, 11.) For the sake of example also, sinners should not only grieve in silence before God, but willingly undergo the penalty of ignominy before men, so as by self-condenmation to confess that God is a just Judge, to provoke others to imitate them, and, by this warning of human frailty to prevent them from a similar fall.

After, however, God has inspired them with fear, He allays His anger as it were, and declares that He will consider what He will do with them, in order that they may gather courage to ask for pardon; for, although he does not actually pardon them, He sufficiently arouses them to hope, by giving them some taste of His mercy; for, by seeming to leave them in suspense, it is not with the intention that they should approach Him hesitatingly to ask forgiveness, but that their anxiety may urge them more and more to earnest prayer, and keep them in a state of humility.

7. And Moses took the tabernacle This was a sign of the divorce between God and the Israelites, that the tabernacle should be removed from the camp and pitched at a distance, as if God were tired of His connection with them. He had promised as a special blessing that He would dwell in the midst of the people; and now, by departing elsewhere, He declares them to be polluted. In a word, the removal of the tabernacle was like the breaking of the tables; for, just as by the breaking of the tables Moses dissolved the covenant of God, so he thus deprived the Israelites for a time of His company and presence. The explanation which some give that it was Moses’ own tabernacle, is refuted by many sound arguments. First, it is not said that he took away his own tabernacle, but the word tabernacle is used simply and without any affix, κατ ᾿ ἐξοχήν Secondly, he did not change his own place of habitation, but only went out thither from time to time for the purpose of worshipping, or, at any rate, of consulting God. Thirdly, it would have been by no means lawful to assign the sacred name which God had bestowed on His Sanctuary to a private tabernacle. Fourthly, God, by manifesting His glory there, testified that it was His own dwelling-place. Fifthly, it would have been absurd that the people should have sought God in that direction, unless the place had been sacred. Sixthly, the object (of its removal,) which I have above adverted to, must be taken into consideration, for Moses did not withdraw himself from the people, but rather continued, as was his custom, in the midst of the camp, and merely wished to shew that God withdrew Himself from that profane place lest He should be infected by the contagion; so that it was a kind of excommunication. It is said, indeed, that he pitched it for himself, yet not for his private use, as is plain from the context, but in accordance with the common form of expression, in which לו, lo, is often redundant; still properly speaking, he did pitch it for himself, for he alone, had access to it, apart from others. Those who understand it to have been his private tabernacle, suppose that their opinion is supported by what follows, viz., that he called it, the tabernacle, Moed; for they thence infer that it had not before been distinguished by that honorable title. But this objection is easily got over, since it is more probable that this was inserted parenthetically in the text, and therefore may be properly rendered in the pluperfect tense. For by this clause the reason is alleged why God had betaken Himself elsewhere, viz., that the place which He had appointed for covenanting with the people should remain deserted. Nevertheless, if we should refer it to this actual time, it will not be unsuitable that the people, at the present moment, should be reminded of their sad separation, and that Moses, in order to inflict more ignominy and shame upon them, should have called it the tabernacle of convention, though it was now far distant from the camp. As to the word Moed, I will not repeat what I have elsewhere said. Let my readers, therefore, refer to it at the end of chapter 29.

Note 361. So the LXX., Καὶ λαβὼν Μωυσὢς τὴν σκηνὴν αὐτοῦ the Syriac, Grotius, and many other commentators quoted in Poole. The greater number, however, even although disagreeing with C. in his notion that the tabernacle was already built, (see vol. 2, p. 143, et seq.,) are satisfied with his reasons why it should not be the private tent of Moses. “Wherefore, this was some peculiar tabernacle which Moses erected specially for the service of God, as it may appear by the name of it, (for) it hath the same name which the other great tabernacle was to be called by; there was the cloud, the visible sign of God’s presence, and the people worshipped towards that place. Simlerus, Osiander, Tostatus,” in Willet. So also Rosenmuller, “after Michaelis, and some of the Hebrews,” in Brightwell; and Prof. Bush, who adopts C.’s opinion as to the clause, “he called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation.” — Vide infra.

Note 362. לו, is properly either. for him, or, for it. — W. Ainsworth’s literal translation is, “And Moses took a tent, and pitched it for him.”

Note 363. מועד moed, or, mogned. A.V., “The tabernacle of the congregation.” The noun is formed from יעד to call together, to appoint either a place, or time of meeting; and hence it means either an appointed place, or time of meeting. — W.

Note 364. See vol. 2, p. 297, on Exodus 29:42, where C. gives his reason for translating the words, Tabernaculum conventionis.

7 and it came to pass that every one which sought the Lord Some translate it, “asked counsel;” but, in my opinion, the ordinary signification is preferable. Whether, therefore, they desired to testify their piety by public worship, or to pray, or to seek counsel in doubtful matters, they went out towards that sanctuary in order that their eyes might rest upon it. Moses does not mean that they actually came to the place, from access to which they knew themselves to be prohibited on account of their pollution. But their thus going out was in token of repentance; as though they acknowledged that they were unworthy to receive an answer from God, unless they departed from that place which they had defiled by their atrocious crime. Now, it was useful for them to be thus humbled, in order that idolatry might be held in greater detestation. Nor is there any contradiction in what follows, viz., that they “stood, every man at his tent-door,” whenever Moses went out; for the glory of God, which at that time was more manifest, was such as then to inspire them with greater reverence and terror. Whensoever, therefore, the mediator presented himself before God, they were permitted to do no more than behold from afar the pillar of cloud which then enveloped Moses, so as to separate him from them. Meanwhile, it must be observed, that though God at this time departed from them, it was only so far as to reject them from close access to Him, and not that they were altogether alienated. For their worship was a sign of faith; they were allowed to pray to God and implore His favor; and they knew that they were heard in the person of Moses. Their separation, therefore, was not such as totally to cut off the hope of pardon, but such as to quicken their anxiety, and to exercise them to repentance. Thus God often designedly hides His face from sinners in order to invite them to Him in true humiliation. And this we nmst carefully attend to, lest, when He chastises us either by word or deed, terror, or a sense of our criminality, should hinder our prayers; but rather let us seek Him from however great a distance. The object of excommunication is nearly similar; for those whom the Church rejects from the company of the faithful, are delivered to Satan, but only “for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord;” (1 Corinthians 5:5;) and hence Paul would not have them counted as enemies, but admonished as brethren. (2 Thessalonians 3:15.)