Exodus 33:23
in Exodus 33Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back; but my face shall not be seen.
KJV
And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
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This verse in Exodus 33
Commentary
11 notes on this verseLike 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."
This site's exposition
Behold, there is a place by me
on 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.
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
For it is well known that he, that is, the one who gave the oracles to Moses, says, "You shall not see my face but my back." Certainly these statements must be understood by the aid of that symbolism which is appropriate to the understanding of divine sayings, and those old wives' fables, which ignorant people invent on the subject of the front and back parts of God, must be utterly rejected and despised. Nor indeed must anyone suppose that we have entertained some impious thought in saying that the Father is not visible even to the Savior, but he must consider the exact meaning of the terms we use in controverting the heretics. For we have said that it is one thing to see and be seen, another to perceive and be perceived or to know and be known. To see and be seen is a property of bodies, which it would certainly not be right to apply either to the Father or to the Son or to the Holy Spirit in their relations one with another. For the Trinity by its nature transcends the limits of vision, although it grants to those who are in bodies, that is, to all other creatures, the property of being seen one by another. But incorporeal and above all intellectual nature is capable of nothing else but to know and be known, as the Savior himself declares when he says, "No one knows the Son save the Father, neither does any know the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him." It is clear then that he did not say, "No one sees the Father save the Son" but "No one knows the Father save the Son."
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Long before this, Jacob had spoken of it with wonder that he had seen God face to face, and yet his life was preserved, Gen. xxxii. Sinful man dreads the sight of God his Judge; but holy souls, being by the Spirit of the Lord changed into the same image, behold with open face the glory of the Lord.
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.
And I will take away my hand - Speaking after the manner of men. And thou shalt see my back-parts - The face in man is the seat of majesty, and men are known by their faces, in them we take a full view of men; that sight of God Moses might not have, but such a sight as we have of a man who is gone past us, so that we only see his back.
And I will take away mine hand,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3448: “God's Glory and His Goodness” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
IT has frequently happened that good men in times of great trial have asked God either to give them a signal token of His love, or a special Revelation of Himself, that they might be strengthened and encouraged thereby. I suppose of many here present it is true that when called by the Master to great labor or deep affliction, you have been conscious of the same inward desire—your heart has craved after some extraordinary dispensation of Grace to counterbalance the extraordinary visitation of suffering that has overtaken you. Were you indulged with singular nearness to God and unusual glimpses of His Glory, you feel it would then be easy to leave all matters in His hands and acquit yourselves valiantly—strong for service, whatever there is to do—and patient in enduring whatever there may be to bear. That prayer, "I beseech You, show me Your Glory," is a natural yearning, a spontaneous impulse of the soul. Albeit, I know that there is a grievous incredulity, a sinful unbelief which asks to see signs and wonders—and without them men will not believe— yet I think there is a desire which springs up in the breasts of Believers from an earnest childlike feeling of dependence upon the great Father God which is not sinful, and which God accepts—and to which He often sends a gracious reply. Now we will not linger over any preliminary reflections. Our text is rather long, and our time this evening is very short. Let us draw your attention, in the first place, to the fact that— I. GOD'S GLORY EVIDENTLY LIES IN HIS GOODNESS.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3448: “God's Glory and His Goodness” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
IT has frequently happened that good men in times of great trial have asked God either to give them a signal token of His love, or a special Revelation of Himself, that they might be strengthened and encouraged thereby. I suppose of many here present it is true that when called by the Master to great labor or deep affliction, you have been conscious of the same inward desire—your heart has craved after some extraordinary dispensation of Grace to counterbalance the extraordinary visitation of suffering that has overtaken you.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַהֲסִרֹתִי֙ | vahasiroti | and I will remove | H5493 → | 299 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כַּפִּ֔י | kapi | palm my | H3709 → | 192 times |
| וְרָאִ֖יתָ | veraita | and you will see | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| אֲחֹרָ֑י | ʾachorai | back parts my | H268 → | |
| וּפָנַ֖י | ufanai | and face my | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יֵרָאֽוּ׃ ס | yerau | they will be visible | H7200 → | 1300 times |
וַהֲסִרֹתִי֙and I will remove
vahasirotiH5493 →299 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
כַּפִּ֔יpalm my
kapiH3709 →192 times
וְרָאִ֖יתָand you will see
veraitaH7200 →1300 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
אֲחֹרָ֑יback parts my
ʾachoraiH268 →
וּפָנַ֖יand face my
ufanaiH6440 →2123 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יֵרָאֽוּ׃ סthey will be visible
yerauH7200 →1300 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 1:18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
it leads to
- Colossians 1:15
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 6:46
not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.
- Matthew 11:27
All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses…
- Luke 10:22
All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to…
- 1 John 4:12
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
- Colossians 1:15
Through
1 Timothy 6:16He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
it leads to
- John 1:18
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Timothy 1:17
Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
- 1 John 1:5
And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
- John 1:18
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Exodus
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Augustine of Hippo, THE TRINITY 2.17.28; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3448: “God's Glory and His Goodness” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); 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 (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.15 and Origen of Alexandria, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.3.