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Exodus 33:3

in Exodus 33

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiffnecked people, lest I consume thee in the way.

KJV

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

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This verse in Exodus 33

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

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.

This site's exposition

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The offer is the gift without the giver, a good land and a withdrawn presence.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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

Unto a land flowing with milk and honey,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Justice said, "Cut them off, and consume them." Mercy said, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? " Hos. xi. Well, says God, put off thy ornaments, that I may know what to do with thee; that is, "Put thyself into the posture of a penitent, that the dispute may be determined in thy favour, and mercy may rejoice against judgment,"

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

"Go," says God to Moses, "go and tell them that they are so." He that knows them better than they know themselves says so of them. God would have brought them under the yoke of his law, and into the bond of his covenant, but their necks were too stiff to bow to them.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • אֶ֛רֶץa land

    ʾeretzH776 →2504 times

  • זָבַ֥תflowing of

    zavatH2100 →42 times

  • חָלָ֖בmilk

    chalavH2461 →44 times

  • וּדְבָ֑שׁand honey

    udevashH1706 →54 times

  • כִּי֩for

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • לֹ֨אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • אֶֽעֱלֶ֜הI will go up

    ʾeelehH5927 →890 times

  • בְּקִרְבְּךָ֗in midst your

    bekirbechaH7130 →227 times

  • כִּ֤יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • עַם־[are] a people

    ʾam-H5971 →1873 times

  • קְשֵׁה־stiff of

    kesheh-H7186 →36 times

  • עֹ֙רֶף֙neck

    ʾorefH6203 →33 times

  • אַ֔תָּהyou

    ʾatahH859 →1094 times

  • פֶּן־lest

    pen-H6435 →133 times

  • אֲכֶלְךָ֖I should make an end of you

    ʾakhelkhaH3615 →208 times

  • בַּדָּֽרֶךְ׃on the journey

    badarekhH1870 →707 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Isaiah 48:4For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.10 worksExodus 33:15“If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here.9 worksExodus 32:9–10The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.7 worksActs 7:51You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.7 worksDeuteronomy 9:6–13Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.6 worksExodus 3:8I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.6 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Numbers 13:27And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit!5 worksJeremiah 11:5This was in order to establish the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is to this day.” “Amen, LORD,” I answered.4 worksAmos 3:13–14Hear and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord GOD, the God of Hosts.3 worksNumbers 16:45“Get away from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.” And Moses and Aaron fell facedown.3 worksNumbers 16:21“Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.”3 worksJoshua 5:6For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.3 worksEzekiel 33:13–16If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but he then trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous works will be remembered; he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.3 worksPsalms 78:8Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.3 worksExodus 32:1Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”3 worksNumbers 14:8If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.2 worksExodus 13:5And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month.2 worksJonah 3:10When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Acts 7:51

    You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 10:16

      Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

    • Ephesians 4:30

      And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

    • Jeremiah 4:4

      Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to…

  • Through

    Exodus 3:8

    I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 50:24

      Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac,…

    • Genesis 15:18–21

      On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—

    • Exodus 3:17

      And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

    • Deuteronomy 1:25

      They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”

    • Exodus 13:5

      And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and…

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Exodus: the study guide →Read Exodus 33 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Exodus 33 →