Dual Panel1THE LORD spoke to Moses: “Set out, you and the people you have brought up from Egypt, go from here to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants.
2I shall send an angel ahead of you, and drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
3I shall bring you to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I shall not journey in your company, for fear that I should destroy you on the way, for you are a stubborn people.”
4When the people heard this harsh sentence they went about like mourners, and no one put on his ornaments.
5The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites: You are a stubborn people; at any moment, if I journeyed in your company, I might destroy you. Put away your ornaments now, and I shall determine what to do to you.”
6So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments, and wore them no more from Mount Horeb onwards.
7Moses used to take the Tent and set it up outside the camp some distance away. He called it the Tent of Meeting, and everyone who sought the LORD would go outside the camp to the Tent of Meeting.
8Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at the door of his tent, and follow Moses with their eyes until he had entered the Tent.
9When Moses entered it, the pillar of cloud came down, and stayed at the entrance to the Tent while the LORD spoke with Moses.
10As soon as the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the Tent, they would all prostrate themselves, each at the door of his tent.
11The LORD used to speak with Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another, and Moses then returned to the camp, but his attendant, Joshua son of Nun, never moved from inside the Tent.
12Moses said to the LORD, “You tell me to lead up this people without letting me know whom you will send with me, even though you have said to me, ‘I know you by name, and, what is more, you have found favour with me.’
13If I have indeed won your favour, then teach me to know your ways, so that I can know you and continue in favour with you, for this nation is your own people.”
14The LORD answered, “I shall go myself and set your mind at rest.”
15Moses said to him, “Indeed if you do not go yourself, do not send us up from here;
16for how can it ever be known that I and your people have found favour with you, except by your going with us? So we shall be distinct, I and your people, from all the peoples on earth.”
17The LORD said to Moses, “I shall do what you have asked, because you have found favour with me, and I know you by name.”
18But Moses prayed, “Show me your glory.”
19The LORD answered, “I shall make all my goodness pass before you, and I shall pronounce in your hearing the name ‘LORD’. I shall be gracious to whom I shall be gracious, and I shall have compassion on whom I shall have compassion.”
20But he added, “My face you cannot see, for no mortal may see me and live.”
21The LORD said, “Here is a place beside me. Take your stand on the rock
22and, when my glory passes by, I shall put you in a crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
23Then I shall take away my hand, and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.”