Exoduschapter 33
23 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it at a distance outside the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting, and anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter falls within days of the golden calf, while the camp is still mourning its dead. The covenant has been broken, and the question is whether God will go on living among the people who broke it. It was first heard by a nation whose whole hope rested on that answer. Listen for the four requests Moses makes, each one bolder than the last. Notice the tent pitched outside the camp and who walks out to it. The chapter holds nearness to God and the danger of that nearness together, and it asks the reader to hold both.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, whose whole hope was that God would still travel with them
- What
- Moses' intercession after the calf, the tent of meeting outside the camp and his request to see God's glory.
- Where
- The camp at Sinai, called Horeb here, with a tent pitched at a distance outside it.
- When
- About 1446 BC on the traditional early date, with a thirteenth-century date also held, within days of the golden calf.
- Why
- To show that the presence of God among His people is worth more than the land He promised them.
Historical context
The chapter follows Moses through four requests made on the people's behalf, and he is the only man in it who speaks to God. It falls within days of the calf, in the first year after the exodus. The place is the camp at Sinai, called Horeb at verse 6, which is the mountain of the bush at 3:1 and of the water from the rock at 17:6.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The occasion is the sentence passed at verses 2 and 3, where the land is still promised and God says He will keep His distance from a stiff-necked people.
A first hearer knew that stripping off ornaments was mourning behaviour, and that the gold coming off here is the kind that went into the calf at 32:2 and 32:3. A first hearer also knew what the tent outside the camp cost a man, since anyone seeking the LORD had to walk out of the settlement in the open. The tabernacle had not been built yet, so this tent is a provisional arrangement carrying the name that structure will later take. The pillar of cloud that comes down at its door is the pillar that had led the march since 13:21.
Significance
The sharpest sentence in the book is Moses at verse 15, asking not to be carried up at all if the presence does not go with them. What set Israel apart from every other nation was God being among them rather than the land they were promised.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The same chapter says that God spoke with Moses face to face and that no one can see God's face and live. Israel was given nearness and holiness in one breath and told to hold both.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus for this chapter holds Rashi alone, and the version Sefaria carries reports no licence, so his comments stand here as references rather than as quotations. He comments at every verse from the first to the last, at Rashi on Exodus 33:1:1 and 33:1:2 and then once at each verse through Rashi on Exodus 33:23:1. What he says at each place stands at the reference itself. No other classical commentator on this chapter was found in the corpus, so the teaching part of this card names Rashi and stops there. A later fetch under a licence that permits the text will let his reading be quoted here with his work named. That reading covers the tent outside the camp, the face to face speech of the eleventh verse, and the request to see the glory.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud draw on this chapter, cited here by reference. The three requests of Moses in the middle of the chapter are read in Berakhot at 7a:5, 7a:25, 7a:33 and 63b:6. The Ein Yaakov collections carry the same passages at Berakhot 9:18, Ketubot 13:1, Kiddushin 1:36 and Sotah 1:55. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the chapter at 9:48, 12:9, 14:19, 14:20, 16:22 and 16:24. The stripping of the ornaments at the fourth and fifth verses is read at Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 24 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 49. Midrash Tanchuma Buber reads it at Appendix to Sh'lach 1:1 and at Ki Tisa 15:4, and Midrash Tanchuma at Ki Tisa 27:4. The tent and the pillar of cloud stand at Shemot Rabbah 45:4 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 29:35:3. Megillah 31a:16 and Bava Batra 15a:11 read the prayer of the twelfth and sixteenth verses. Avot DeRabbi Natan reads the seeing of God at 12:5 and 25:1, and Bava Kamma 55a:2 the proclamation of the nineteenth verse.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 33:1:1 to 33:23:1, cited by reference, the version carrying no licence that permits the text, 1040 to 1105; Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 7a:5, 7a:25, 7a:33 and 63b:6, Megillah 31a:16 and Bava Batra 15a:11, cited by reference; Shemot Rabbah, 45:4, cited by reference; Bamidbar Rabbah, 9:48, 12:9, 14:19, 14:20, 16:22 and 16:24, cited by reference; Avot DeRabbi Natan, 12:5 and 25:1, cited by reference; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/exodus/33.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026; MannaFest, the commentators and their dates, src/app/featured/the-jewish-writings/page.tsx, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Strip Off Your Ornaments
Exodus 33:1-2
The march resumes and the land is still promised, since the oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is repeated in full after the calf. What God holds back is himself, and an angel is offered in his place, the same offer made at 23:20 and repeated at 32:34. The promise of Genesis 15 stands after chapter 32, and what is now in question is the company on the road.
Exodus 33:1
“This mount Sinai, where they now were, was the place appointed for the setting up of God's tabernacle and solemn worship among them; this was not yet done, so that in bidding them depart hence God intimates that it should not be done--"Let them go forward as they are;" and so it was very expressive of God's displeasure.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will send an angel before you: The six nations were named at the bush in 3:8, where the LORD promised to bring the people up to this land. Adam Clarke reads this as an ordinary angel, distinct from the angel of 23:20 in whom the LORD's name dwelt. In verse 3 the LORD will not go with them.
Exodus 33:2
“I will send an angel - In Exo 23:20, God promises to send an angel to conduct them into the good land, in whom the name of God should be; that is, in whom God should dwell. See Clarke’s note on Exo 23:20 (note). Here he promises that an angel shall be their conductor; but as there is nothing particularly specified of him, it has been thought that an ordinary angel is intended, and not that Angel of the Covenant promised before. And this sentiment seems to be confirmed by the following verse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a land flowing with milk and honey: The offer is the gift without the giver, a good land and a withdrawn presence. The reason God gives is mercy rather than anger, that his presence in the middle of a stiffnecked people would consume them on the road. The word stiffnecked entered Scripture nine verses into the calf chapter at 32:9, and here it is the ground on which God says he will keep his distance.
Exodus 33:3
“I will not go up in the midst of thee - Consequently, the angel here promised to be their guide was not that angel in whom Jehovah’s name was: and so the people understood it; hence the mourning which is afterwards mentioned.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 33:4-6
The people mourn at the withdrawal, and the sign of the mourning is that no man puts on his ornaments. God's own order at verse 5 leaves the outcome open, put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee, so the stripping is a posture taken before a decision rather than after one. The gold that went into the calf at 32:2 and 32:3 comes off here, and the same kind of freewill gold is brought for the tabernacle at 35:22. Verse 6 sets the scene by mount Horeb, the mountain of the bush at 3:1 and of the water from the rock at 17:6.
Exodus 33:4
“Note, Of all the bitter fruits and consequences of sin, that which true penitents most lament, and dread most, is God's departure from them. God had promised that, notwithstanding their sin, he would give them the land flowing with milk and honey. but they could have small joy of that if they had not God's presence with them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Now take off your jewelry: Matthew Henry reads the order to take off their jewelry as a call to repentance, a sign that the LORD intends mercy. He sets it beside Hosea 11:8, where God asks how He can give up Ephraim. The people had gone into mourning at verse 4.
Exodus 33:5
“In the case of the Israelites, He cherished a design of mercy; and the moment He discerned the first symptoms of contrition, by their stripping off their ornaments, as penitents conscious of their error and sincerely sorrowful, this fact added its weight to the fervency of Moses' prayers, and gave them prevalence with God in behalf of the people.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 33:5
“Note, Calls to repentance are plain indications of mercy designed. If the Lord were pleased to kill us, justice knows what to do with a stiff-necked people: but God has no pleasure in the death of those that die; let them return and repent, and then mercy, which otherwise is at a loss, knows what to do.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 33:5
“I will come up ... - Better; If I were to go up for one moment in the midst of thee, I should consume thee. That I may know ... - By that sign of their repentance Yahweh would decide in what way they were to be punished.”
from Mount Horeb onward: Albert Barnes reads from Mount Horeb onward as a lasting change, the Israelites leaving off their jewelry from that place on. The Berean wording follows that reading. Adam Clarke cites the Septuagint, where the people strip off their robes as well.
Exodus 33:6
“By the mount Horeb - From Mount Horeb onward. They ceased to wear their ornaments from the time they were at Mount Horeb.”
The Tent Outside the Camp
Exodus 33:7-8
This is a tent Moses takes and sets outside the settlement, seven chapters before the tabernacle of chapters 35 to 40 is built, and he gives it the name that structure will later carry. The place of meeting stands outside the camp that made the calf, so every man who sought the LORD had to walk out of the camp in the open to reach it. Verse 8 has the whole people standing at their own tent doors watching Moses go, which makes the walk itself public.
Exodus 33:7
“The tabernacle - The tent. The only word in the Old Testament which ought to be rendered “tabernacle” משׁכן mı̂shkān does not occur once in this narrative Exo 26:1. What is here meant is a tent appointed for this temporary purpose by Moses, possibly that in which he was accustomed to dwell. Pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp - That the people might feel that they had forfeited the divine presence (see Exo 25:8). This tent was to be a place for meeting with Yahweh, like the tabernacle which was about to be constructed.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:7
“Therefore did Jesus go forth out of the city, that you going out of this world may be above the world. Moses alone, who saw God, had his tabernacle without the camp when he talked with God; and the blood indeed of the victims which were offered for sin, was brought to the altar, but the bodies were burnt without the camp; for no one placed amidst the evil of this world can lay aside sin, nor is his blood accepted of God, except he go forth from the defilement of this body.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Epistle 63.104patristic
watch Moses until he entered the tent: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture every eye in the camp fixed on the tent, anxious for any sign of hope. Matthew Henry sees the believer here, following Christ by faith into the presence of God. Hebrews 9:24 places Christ there for His people.
Exodus 33:9-10
The cloudy pillar that led the march at 13:21 and stood between the two armies at 14:19 comes down and takes its place at a tent door. The people worship from where they are, every man in his own tent door, which is as near as this chapter lets them come. The width of the whole camp lies between the pillar at that door and the people at theirs.
Exodus 33:9
“The cloudy pillar descended - This very circumstance precluded the possibility of deception. The cloud descending at these times, and at none others, was a full proof that it was miraculous, and a pledge of the Divine presence. It was beyond the power of human art to counterfeit such an appearance; and let it be observed that all the people saw this, Exo 33:10. How many indubitable and irrefragable proofs of its own authenticity and Divine origin does the Pentateuch contain!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:9
“The cloudy pillar, which had withdrawn itself from the camp when it was polluted with idolatry, now returned to this tabernacle at some distance, coming back gradually.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
they would stand up and worship: Matthew Henry notes that the people who had worshipped the calf in public now worship the LORD in public, each man at his own door. Albert Barnes reads it as further proof of penitence. Adam Clarke notes that every eye in the camp saw the cloud descend.
Exodus 33:10
“Thus must we worship God in our tents with an eye to Christ as the Mediator. Their worshipping in their tent doors declared plainly that they were not ashamed publicly to own their respect to God and Moses, as they had publicly worshipped the calf. God was, in Moses, reconciling Israel to himself, and manifested himself very willing to be at peace.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nine verses further on, the same chapter says thou canst not see my face, and Exodus lets both sentences stand. Numbers 12:8 uses mouth to mouth of this same relationship, and John 1:18 says that no man hath seen God at any time and that the only begotten Son hath declared him. The verse also leaves Joshua inside the tent after Moses goes back to the camp, the same Joshua who led the fighting against Amalek at 17:9.
Exodus 33:11
“The Lord spake unto Moses face to face - That there was no personal appearance here we may readily conceive; and that the communications made by God to Moses were not by visions, ecstasies, dreams, inward inspirations, or the mediation of angels, is sufficiently evident: we may therefore consider the passage as implying that familiarity and confidence with which the Divine Being treated his servant, and that he spake with him by articulate sounds in his own language, though no shape or similitude was then to be seen.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
My Presence Shall Go With You
Exodus 33:12-13
Moses argues from what God has already said to him, quoting two sentences back, I know thee by name and thou hast found grace in my sight. What he asks for is to be shown the way in order to know God himself, so knowledge of God is the request and the errand is the reason he gives for it. The last clause hands the calf argument back where it started, since God said thy people to Moses at 32:7 and Moses answered thy people at 32:11, and here he asks God to consider that this nation is thy people.
Exodus 33:12
“Jesus says to her: "Mary." After he called her by the common word for her sex, and was not recognized, he calls her by name. As if he openly said to her: Recognize him by whom you are recognized. To the perfect man also it is said: "I know you by name," because "man" is the common word for all of us, but "Moses" is proper, to whom it is rightly said that he is known by name, as if the Lord openly said to him: I do not know you generally as the rest, but specially.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 25patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:12
“Moses now returned to the door of the tabernacle, as an important supplicant for two favours, and prevails for both: herein he was a type of Christ the great intercessor, whom the Father heareth always. He is earnest with God for a grant of his presence with Israel in the rest of their march to Canaan.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
please let me know Your ways: Psalm 103:7 answers this prayer, saying God made known His ways to Moses and His deeds to Israel. Adam Clarke takes the ways as the manner in which the LORD would lead this people. John Wesley notes that Moses pleads the LORD’s own word.
Exodus 33:13
“Now therefore, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me thy way - What favour God had expressed to the people they had forfeited the benefit of; and therefore Moses lays the stress of his plea upon what God had said to him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 33:13
“As a result Moses, convinced that God will never be known to human wisdom, says, "Reveal yourself to me," and finds himself forced to enter "into the darkness" where the voice of God was present; in other words, into the unapproachable, imageless, intellectual concepts relating to ultimate reality. For God does not exist in darkness. He is not in space at all. He is beyond space and time and anything belonging to created beings. Similarly he is not found in any section. He contains nothing. He is contained by nothing. He is not subject to limit or division.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 2patristic
Exodus 33:13
“Thy way - He desires not to be left in uncertainty, but to be assured, by Yahweh’s mode of proceeding, of the reality of the promises that had been made to him.”
The angel of verse 2 gives way to the presence itself, which is the whole of what Moses had been asking for. Rest is added to the promise without being asked for, and the rest promised to that generation is the subject Psalm 95:8-11 takes up and Hebrews 3:7 to 4:11 applies to its own readers. The Hebrew behind presence here is the word for face, so the sentence reads my face shall go, six verses before God says that no man can see that face and live.
Exodus 33:14
“My presence shall go with thee - פני ילכו panai yelechu, my faces shall go. I shall give thee manifestations of my grace and goodness through the whole of thy journey. I shall vary my appearances for thee, as thy necessities shall require.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 33:15-16
Moses turns down the land on the terms offered and asks to be left where he stands rather than to go up with less. His reason at verse 16 is that the presence is the one mark that separates Israel from all the people that are upon the face of the earth, since a nation with a law and a land and no God in the middle of it looks like the rest. This is his fourth intervention in three chapters, after 32:11-14, 32:31-32 and the plea of verses 12 and 13, and at 34:9 he will make the stiff neck itself his reason for asking God to come along.
Exodus 33:15
“THIS is a prayer which has been used hundreds of times and which is found quite in place on many different occasions. Moses was in the wilderness when he uttered it. He was about to lead the people into Canaan, the land that flowed with milk and honey, yet he felt that he would rather continue to endure the inconveniences of the tent and of the wilderness, with the Presence of his God, than enjoy the rest and the fatness of the land of promise without Him.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2811: “Moving” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:15
“If thy presence go not - אם אין פניך הלכים im ein paneycha holechim, if thy faces do not go - if we have not manifestations of thy peculiar providence and grace, carry us not up hence. Without supernatural assistance, and a most particular providence, he knew that it would be impossible either to govern such a people, or support them in the desert; and therefore he wishes to be well assured on this head, that he may lead them up with confidence, and be able to give them the most explicit assurances of support and protection.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How else will we be distinguished: Albert Barnes gives the verb the sense distinguished, the word the Berean uses. The Presence of the LORD going with His people is what sets them apart from every people on the earth. David asks the same at 2 Samuel 7:23.
Exodus 33:16
“So shall we be separated - By having this Divine protection we shall be saved from idolatry, and be preserved in thy truth and in the true worshipping of thee; and thus shall we be separated from all the people that are upon the face of the earth: as all the nations of the world, the Jews only excepted, were at this time idolaters.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 33:17-18
God grants the request and repeats the ground twice over, that Moses has found grace in his sight and is known by name. The man who has just been given everything he asked for asks for one thing more, and it is four words long, shew me thy glory. It is the shortest speech in the chapter and it is the one God answers with a limit.
Exodus 33:17
“See, in type, the prevalency of Christ's intercession, which he ever lives to make for all those that come to God by him, and the ground of that prevalency. It is purely his own merit, not any thing in those for whom he intercedes; it is because thou hast found grace in my sight.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:17
“I will do this thing also - My presence shall go with thee, and I will keep thee separate from all the people of the earth. Both these promises have been remarkably fulfilled. God continued miraculously with them till he brought them into the promised land; and from the day in which he brought them out of Egypt to the present day, he has kept them a distinct, unmixed people! Who can account for this on any principle but that of a continual especial providence, and a constant Divine interference?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Show Me Your Glory
Charles Spurgeon called this the greatest petition a man ever asked of God. The LORD answers in verse 19 with His goodness and His name, and verse 20 withholds His face. Matthew Henry allows some human weakness in the desire.
Exodus 33:18
“THAT was a large request for Moses to make. He could not have asked for more. "I beseech You, show me Your Glory." Why, it is the greatest petition that man ever asked of God! It seems to me the greatest stretch of faith that I have either heard or read of. It was great faith which made Abraham go into the plain to offer up intercession for a guilty city like Sodom. It was vast faith which enabled Jacob to grasp the Angel.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3120: “A View of God's Glory” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
3 more voices on this verse
Exodus 33:18
“Boy, if I'd taken a stick and divided the Red Sea, I'd thought I'd seen all the glory I needed. If I hit a rock and it split open and it followed the nation wherever they went, I'd say, look at the magic.”
Leonard Ravenhill · Moses and Exodus 33 - Part 1British Wesleyan-Holiness
Exodus 33:18
“Something it was more than he had yet seen that Moses desired. If it was purely for the assisting of his faith and devotion, the desire was commendable; but perhaps there was in it a mixture of human infirmity. God will have us walk by faith, not by sight, in this world; and faith comes by hearing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 33:18
“I beseech thee, show me thy glory--This is one of the most mysterious scenes described in the Bible: he had, for his comfort and encouragement, a splendid and full display of the divine majesty, not in its unveiled effulgence, but as far as the weakness of humanity would admit. The face, hand, back parts, are to be understood figuratively.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
In place of the sight of his glory God offers his goodness and his name, and 34:5-7 is where that promise is kept. The content of the name is mercy first, and it is proclaimed to a nation that had made a calf three chapters earlier. Paul quotes the close of this verse at Romans 9:15 and quotes Exodus 9:16 about Pharaoh two verses later, so both halves of his argument there are drawn out of this book.
Exodus 33:19
“Now here please note carefully what I am to say, because of the Jews. For it is our purpose to demonstrate that the Lord, Jesus Christ, was with the Father. The Lord then said to Moses, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'Lord.' " Being himself the Lord, what Lord does he proclaim? You see how in a veiled manner he was teaching the holy doctrine of Father and Son.”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 10.8patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 33:19
“Even so, Father, because it seemed good in thy sight. It is never said, "I will be angry at whom I will be angry," for his wrath is always just and holy; but I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy, for his grace is always free.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 33:19
“BECAUSE GOD IS THE MAKER, and creator, and sustainer of all things, he has a right to do as he wills with all his works. “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?” God’s absolute supremacy and unlimited sovereignty naturally flow from his omnipotence, and if it were not so, the superlative excellence of the divine character would entitle him to absolute dominion. He should be chief who is best.”
Cross references
Exodus 33:19
- Quoted inRomans 9:15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy' ('he saith to Moses')
The limit is put as a fact about man, for there shall no man see me, and live. Verse 11 said face to face, 24:10 and 24:11 said that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders saw the God of Israel and did eat and drink, and this sentence stands beside both of them without adjustment. John 1:18 and John 1:14 are where the New Testament takes the question up, and readings of the earlier sightings as appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ are held by named writers rather than stated by Exodus.
Exodus 33:20
"Who shall see my face and live?" Scripture said, and rightly so. For our eyes cannot bear the sun's rays, and whoever turns too long in its direction is generally blinded, so they say. Now if one creature cannot look upon another creature without loss and harm to himself, how can he see the dazzling face of his eternal Creator while covered with the clothing that is this body?
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · DEATH AS A GOOD 11.49patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 33:20
“No man see me, and live - The splendor would be insufferable to man; he only, whose mortality is swallowed up of life, can see God as he is. See 1Jn 3:2. From some disguised relation of the circumstances mentioned here, the fable of Jupiter and Semele was formed; she is reported to have entreated Jupiter to show her his glory, who was at first very reluctant, knowing that it would be fatal to her; but at last, yielding to her importunity, he discovered his divine majesty, and she was consumed by his presence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 33:20
“A full discovery of the glory of God would quite overpower the faculties of any mortal man in this present state, and overwhelm him, even Moses himself. Man is mean and unworthy of it, weak and could not bear it, guilty and could not but dread it. It is in compassion to our infirmity that God holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth a cloud upon it, Job xxvi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 33:21-23
The answer to the request is a place, a rock and a hand. Moses is put in a clift of the rock and covered while the glory passes, so the covering is what makes the sight survivable, and what he is left with at the end is the back parts. Horeb is where a rock was struck for water at 17:6, and 1 Corinthians 10:4 says that Rock was Christ. Reading this particular cleft as a shelter in Christ is a tradition rather than a claim of the text, and Augustus Toplady carried the image into English hymnody in Rock of Ages.
Exodus 33:21
“Behold, there is a place by me - There seems to be a reference here to a well-known place on the mount where God was accustomed to meet with Moses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:21
“God himself will protect those that are thus hid. And it is only through Christ that we have the knowledge of the glory of God. None can see his glory to their comfort but those who stand upon this rock, and take shelter in it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will put you in a cleft of the rock: Gregory of Nazianzus describes his own search for God in these terms, sheltered by the rock, the Word made flesh, and seeing scarcely the back of God. Elijah later stands in a cave at Horeb, at 1 Kings 19:9. There too the LORD passes by.
Exodus 33:22
“This was the rock in Horeb, out of which water was brought, of which it is said, That rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x, 4. 'Tis in the clefts of this rock that we are secured from the wrath of God, which otherwise would consume us: God himself will protect those that are thus hid: and it is only through Christ that we have the knowledge of the glory of God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:22
“What is this that has happened to me, O friends and initiates and fellow lovers of the truth? I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went up into the mount and drew aside the curtain of the cloud and entered away from matter and material things. And as far as I could I withdrew within myself. And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God, although I was sheltered by the rock, the Word that was made flesh for us.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2:3patristic
ConnectionsJohn 1:14
you will see My back: John Wesley reads it as a man seen from behind. Augustine took the back to prefigure the flesh of Christ, born of the Virgin and risen, and the face as the form of God. In verse 20 no one can see the face of the LORD and live.
Exodus 33:23
“Now Moses was allowed to see only the back-parts; but long afterwards, when he was a witness to Christ's transfiguration, he saw his face shine as the sun. If we faithfully improve the discoveries God gives us of himself while we are here, a brighter and more glorious scene will shortly be opened to us; for to him that hath shall be given.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 33:23
Like to these is the saying of God to Moses: "Lo, I have set you in a cleft of the rock, and you shall see my back parts." That rock which is Christ is therefore not completely closed but has clefts. But the cleft of the rock is he who reveals God to men and makes him known to them; for "no one knows the Father, save the Son."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.15patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a chapter of four requests made by one man, with the account of the tent of meeting set inside it, as site classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The face that will go and will never be seen | The Hebrew word behind Presence at verse 14 is the word for face, so the promise reads that God's face will go with them. Six verses later the same chapter says that no one can see that face and live. Verse 11 had already said that God spoke to Moses face to face. Exodus lets all three sentences stand in one chapter. | Exodus 33:11, Exodus 33:14, Exodus 33:20 |
| Every man at his own tent door | Verse 8 has the whole camp standing at the entrances of their own tents to watch Moses walk out. Verse 10 has them standing there again to worship when the pillar comes down. The phrase marks how near the people are allowed to come, which is as far as their own doorways. | Exodus 33:8, Exodus 33:10 |
| The stiff neck used by both sides | God gives the stiff neck at verses 3 and 5 as the reason for staying at a distance from the camp. At 34:9 Moses takes the same words and makes them his reason for asking God to come along. The chapter sets up an argument that the next chapter closes. | Exodus 33:3, Exodus 33:5, Exodus 34:9 |
| Four requests, each larger than the last | Moses asks to be told whom God will send at verses 12 and 13. He then asks God to go with them at verse 15. He asks for the mark that separates Israel from every other people at verse 16. At verse 18 he asks to be shown the glory, in the shortest speech of the chapter. | Exodus 33:13, Exodus 33:15, Exodus 33:16, Exodus 33:18 |
The chapter is the middle of a three-chapter unit. Chapter 32 breaks the covenant, chapter 33 argues over whether God will go with the people, and chapter 34 renews the covenant and proclaims the name. The request of verse 18 is answered at 34:5 to 34:7, which is where the promise of verse 19 is kept.
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter also stands seven chapters before the tabernacle is finished. Moses pitches a tent outside the camp here and calls it the Tent of Meeting. The glory fills the structure built in the middle of the camp at 40:34, and Moses cannot get in. The two tents and the two distances are worth reading together.
The New Testament's use
Paul quotes the close of verse 19 at Romans 9:15, where the sentence about having mercy on whom God will have mercy carries the argument. Two verses later he quotes Exodus 9:16 about Pharaoh, so both halves of that passage come out of this book. John 1:18 takes up the limit of verse 20 and says that no one has ever seen God, and that the only begotten Son has made Him known. Hebrews 3:7 to 4:11 works on the rest promised at verse 14, by way of Psalm 95:8 to 11.
The debated point
Verse 11 says the LORD spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Verse 20 says that no one can see God's face and live. Exodus 24:10 and 24:11 say that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders saw the God of Israel and ate and drank.
One reading takes face to face as a description of the manner of the speech, plain and direct, rather than of a sight. Numbers 12:8 supports it by using mouth to mouth of the same relationship. A second reading takes the earlier sightings as appearances of God in a form that could be seen, with verse 20 denying the sight of the unveiled glory. Readings of those appearances as the pre-incarnate Christ are held by named writers rather than stated by Exodus.
The chapter states both sentences and reconciles neither. A student should notice that Exodus placed them nine verses apart on purpose.
Where to go deeper
No page on the glory of God stands under /featured yet, so the request of verse 18 and the answer given to it are carried in full above, and the page is listed as owed. The rock Moses is hidden in stands with Moses strikes the rock, which is the rock of 17:6 at the same mountain. The covenant under argument is set out at the Mosaic covenant.
Keep studying
Places1
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon and This site, the Study page standard, the form read from the chapter's own shape; Exodus stands in the law group at src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, THE TRINITY 2.17.28; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3120: “A View of God's Glory” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Gregory of Nazianzus, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2:3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.