1. And Yehovah spoke unto Moshe, "Walk!¹ Ascend from this – thou and the people that thou 'ascended'² from the Land of Egypt – unto the Land that I swore to Avraham, to Isaac and to Jacob to say, 'I will give her to thy seed.'³

2. And I will send a messenger⁴ to thy faces⁵ – and I will expel the Canaani, the Emori and the Khitti and the Prizi, the Khivi and the Yevusi –

3. unto a land gushing⁶ milk and honey. For I will not ascend in thy midst – for thou art a hard-neck⁷-people⁸ – lest I will eat⁹ thee in the way!"

4. And the people heard this bad word.¹⁰ And they mourned-themselves.¹¹ And they did not put a man¹² his witness-ornaments¹³ upon him.

5. And Yehovah said unto Moshe, "Say unto the children of Israel, 'Ye¹⁴ are a hard-neck-people. One instant I will ascend in thy¹⁴ midst and I will finish thee! ¹⁴ And now, make-descend thy witness-ornaments from upon thee. And I have known what I will do to thee."

6. And the children of Israel snatched-away¹⁵ themselves with their witness-ornaments from Mount Horeb.

7. And Moshe will take¹⁶ the Tent. And he will plant for him¹⁷ outside to the camp the distance¹⁸ from the camp. And he will call to him, 'Tent of Appointment.'¹⁹ And he will be, every seeker of Yehovah will exit unto Tent of Appointment that is from outside to the camp.²⁰

8. And he will be, as Moshe exits unto the Tent. They will arise – all the people, and they will position, a man an opening²¹ of his tent. And they will peer after Moshe unto his coming the²² Tentward.

9. And he shall be, as Moshe's coming the Tentward, a pillar of the cloud will descend. And he will stand, opening of the Tent.²³ And He will speak with Moshe.

10. And all the people will see the pillar of the cloud standing, opening of the Tent! And all the people will arise! And they will worship,²⁵ a man an opening of his tent.²⁶

11. And Yehovah will speak unto Moshe faces unto faces just-as a man will speak unto his neighbour. And he will return unto the camp. And his minister, Yehoshua son of Noon is a youth. He will not remove from the midst of the Tent!

12. And Moshe said unto Yehovah, "See, Thou said unto me, 'Ascend this People!' And Thou, Thou did not apprise me whom Thou wilt send with me. And Thou, Thou²⁷ said, 'I knew thee via Name! ²⁸ And also thou found favour in my eyes.'²⁹

13. And now if, na,³⁰ I found favour in Thine eyes, apprise me, na, Thy Way, and I have known Thee so that I will find favour in Thine eyes.³¹ And see that Thy People is this race!" ³²

14. And He said, "My faces shall walk.³³ And I will cause-rest to thee." ³⁴

15. And he said unto Him, "If Thy faces are not walking, do not ascend us from this! ³⁵

16. And via what³⁶ will he be known how³⁶ that I found favour in Thine eyes, I and Thy People? Is-it-not via Thy walking with us? And we shall be distinguished – I and Thy People – from every people that is upon the faces of the soil!" ³⁷

17. And Yehovah said unto Moshe, "Also I will do this word that thou spoke. For thou found favour in my eyes and I knew thee via Name!"

18. And he said, "Show me, na, Thy Glory." ³⁸

19. And He said, "I, I will make-cross-over all my Good³⁹ upon thy faces. And I will call via Name Yehovah to thy faces.⁴⁰ And I will favour whom I will favour, and I will mercy whom I will mercy!" ⁴¹

20. And He said, "Thou wilt not be able to see my faces! For the adam will not see me and live!" ⁴²

21. And Yehovah said, "Behold a Place with me.⁴³ And thou shalt position upon the Rock.⁴⁴

22. And he shall be⁴⁵ via my Glory's crossing-over. And I will put thee in a fissure of the Rock. And I will screen-cover my palm⁴⁶ upon thee unto my crossing-over.⁴⁷

23. And I will remove my palm. And thou shalt see my After.⁴⁸ And they⁴⁹ shall not see my faces."

______________

¹ Walking is a major sub-theme of the Bible!

² I will freely violate rules of English grammar in this translation to bring the flavour of the Hebrew to the reader. Ascend is normally intransitive; I am making it transitive. One does not usually "ascend" something else, but brings it up. One can make something or someone ascend in Hebrew, however.

³ The seed alone is mentioned as the object of ownership of the land in this case! That seed refers to Messiah, according to Paul"s letter.

⁴ Messenger and angel are the same word in Hebrew and in Greek.

⁵ The plural faces will be often used in this chapter. It is vital for the reader"s understanding of this text. Faces is always plural in Hebrew; no one has only one face.

⁶ I had difficulty choosing the right word. Gushing may be describing motion that is too fast. Oozing is too slow. It is like a flux; the rate is quick and continuous. Milk and honey refer also to cattle and bees, of course.

⁷ Hard neck can refer to a horse or a camel that does not want to be turned. Individuals and peoples are either bridled or unbridled (they are either controlled in behaviour or they are wild).

⁸ People is singular throughout this text. The plural would be peoples, and would refer to different cultural groups (I propose).

⁹ Yehovah is no cannibal. Eat is often rendered devour or consume, since those make more sense to a reader of English. The word does mean eat, however. Yehovah is here like a lion.

¹⁰ This doesn"t refer to cussing, but to a word from Yehovah that is bad!

¹¹ Mourning is not necessarily spontaneous. The Israelis brought themselves into a mourning mode once they heard what Yehovah said.

¹² When the Hebrew expresses something that each person did, it will refer to "a man" to describe it.

¹³ Witness-ornaments is an interesting word in Hebrew. It can mean witness, and it can just as easily mean ornament. Jewelry testifies to a person"s wealth and position in society. Thus, it witnesses regarding the person. It also is ornamental.

¹⁴ I footnoted the three pronouns ye, thy and thee. The Israelis are the object of ye, while the People of Israel is the object of thy and thee. This shows group responsibility. Thus, the next thee in the next sentence refers to Israel. Israel also wears witness-ornaments!

¹⁵ The meaning of snatched away reminded me of the Rapture. The Israelis disappeared quickly, and made sure their jewelry did the same!

¹⁶ See how the tenses change in this section!

¹⁷ Him refers to the tent, don"t you think?

¹⁸ Moshe didn"t just place the Tent a distance, but the distance. That Tent is a type of things to come:

Hebrews 10:1 For the Torah, having a shadow of good things to come"not the very image of the things"

It had to be moved, because its presence in Israel endangered Israel as long as the Israelis continued in sin. That distance to the Tent also gave a picture.

²⁹ This is the correct rendering of these words. It is called Tent of Appointment because the appointments of Yehovah are pictured in its construction and services.

²⁰ This pictures what every Israeli had to do to seek Yehovah; each had to leave Israel"s camp to seek out that representation of Yehovah"s appointments.

²¹ The opening of the tents will be very important in a right understanding of these texts. Other texts wrongly translated this as the door of the structure. Opening is right, since it is the opposite of a door. A door"s purpose is to keep things and persons out; an opening"s purpose is to permit entry.

²² I had to include the definite article since I could and since the Hebrew did. The Tentward does indicate toward and to the Tent.

²³ Doesn"t this obviously show that this Pillar of cloud is the opening of this Tent, the way into it? That is what I saw. I have understood that entrance into that Tent results in Salvation as long as one enters by the right means. No Israelis except very specifically designated priests ever went into that Tent (the death penalty being applied to any unauthorized persons who tried).

²⁴ Tell me, reader, who He is in the last line of this verse.

²⁵ Please do not be taken by the totally erroneous understanding of worship taught today in the best of churches. Worship is always prostrating oneself before another. Reasons for doing this will vary, but anything called "worship" not including physical prostration (lying flat down) isn"t worship in the Biblical sense.

²⁶ The Hebrew isn"t indicating that they are worshipping the openings of their tents, but rather where they are worshipping. The English demands at for this to make sense. Yet at does change the text some, making the location the most important part of the statement. Verse 9 above showed why: "He will stand, opening of the Tent." He (the Pillar) is the opening of the Tent. It isn"t a locational statement; it is giving the reader information. The following King James Version translation of another text shows this also. First, note the italicized word that the translators added, then read the same text without the added word:

Exodus 29:11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Exodus 29:11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Yehovah is the "door" (opening) of the "tabernacle of the congregation" (Tent of Appointment)! It is as He stated,

John 10:7 Then Yeshua said unto them again, "Faith! Faith I say unto you! I am the door {opening} of the sheep."

John 10:9 "I am the door {opening}! If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture."

²⁷ Translators always skipped the doubled pronouns, assuming that they were not important. I maintain that they are very important. I say "doubled pronouns" because of the way the language works. Hebrew past-tense and future-tense verbs usually require no pronouns, because identifying pronoun forms are usually built into the verbs. (Present tense verbs do require pronouns since the same spelling can indicate first, second or third persons.) When a pronoun has been supplied in the past or future forms, I recognize it as a doubling, and thus as a stronger statement as you see at this point in verse 12.

²⁸ If Yehovah knows someone "via" (by, in, through) Name, that person is born of God, as the opposite text shows:

Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, "I never knew you! Depart from me, ye that work iniquity!"

²⁹ In case you missed this vital point, one has the power to find favour in Yehovah"s eyes! Thus, one can seek His favour.

³⁰ The particle na cannot be translated into an English word, because it is a softener in Hebrew. Hebrew statements are usually blunt. Blunt statements can appear to lack respect or gentleness. Na takes care of that. Even Yehovah sometimes uses na when speaking to men!

³¹ I did not fail to notice this curious circle! I also saw that knowing Yehovah"s Way is equivalent to knowing Yehovah, and is how to find favour in Yehovah"s eyes!

³² This may seem an obvious point, but Yehovah has been angered with the Israelis to the degree that He proposed to annihilate them and raise up seed from Moshe!

Deuteronomy 9:14 "Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they."

Other groups have thought to annihilate the Jews by declaring that they, rather than Israel, are the "new" and "true" "people of God". They don"t understand Yehovah, His Way or His plans.

³³ If you want to understand this, carefully read Ezekiel 1. Verses 5-12 may give you the proper understanding.

³⁴ Was Yehovah referring to Moshe when He said thee, or was He referring to Israel? This is one of the texts to which the following Hebrews texts refer:

Hebrews 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.

Hebrews 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Hebrews 4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

They in turn refer to the following texts:

Psalms 95:11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Deuteronomy 12:9 (literally) For ye are not come unto now to the rest and to the inheritance that Yehovah thy Gods gave to thee. ¹⁰And ye shall cross-over the Jordan. And ye have dwelt in the land that Yehovah your Gods inherits-to you. And He shall rest to you from all your enemies around. And ye shall dwell securely. ¹¹And he shall be the place that Yehovah your Gods shall choose in him to abide His Name there.

³⁵ Moshe isn"t dense. Yehovah did say, "My faces shall walk." Moshe believes Yehovah. But shall walk is in the future; it could be thirty generations later! Moshe"s interest is in Yehovah"s walking now!

³⁶ What and how are both in the Hebrew. This is a curious sentence even in Hebrew! If anyone privately finds favour in Yehovah"s eyes, that is good. But in this case it must be publicly known! Moshe (by the Spirit of God) added, "and Thy People"!

³⁷ What distinguishes the Israelis from every other people in the world? Yehovah is walking with them! What endangers the Israelis more than any other people in the world? Yehovah is walking with them wherever they go! It is the greatest blessing, the greatest endangerment!

³⁸ Glory means importance, weight. (I know of no other meanings.) Moshe knew how important and how "heavy" Yehovah was. He is asking to be shown something else.

³⁹ Isn"t Yehovah equating Glory and Good?

⁴⁰ Why would Yehovah call via "Name Yehovah"? Isn"t this to identify Who His Good and His Glory is?

⁴¹ This text has been one of several that haters of the Biblical God have used to show His great unfairness. They are right in one respect: Yehovah doesn"t use fairness in most cases. Had He used fairness, all would have been condemned to the Lake of Fire and Sulfur. (I have used mercy as a transitive verb contrary to English grammar.)

⁴² This is an excellent text for conflict hunters! It is also an excellent text for folks who believe that the Word of God is Truth and contains no conflicts. You must identify Thou in this verse. You say it is Moshe, right? Yet, Moshe is speaking to Yehovah faces to faces at this moment! The tense is future, however. Therefore, Yehovah will do the demonstration for Moshe, and Moshe will not see His faces at that time, since the adam (the generic unregenerate man) will not see Yehovah and live. This demonstration is as much for the Israelis as it is for Moshe! It is as much for all readers of the Bible as it is for Moshe!

⁴³ The Spirit of Yehovah in the Bible refers to The Place as if it is a person. Orthodox Jewish theology holds this, and brings it out in the traditional Orthodox Passover. The following text shows why:

Psalms 90:1 A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

⁴⁴ Reader, identify this Rock.

⁴⁵ Translators almost always render this, "It shall come to pass" instead of "he shall be." Did they miss something important?

⁴⁶ This is the palm of the hand, not the tree.

⁴⁷ So, what is crossing over? Yehovah? His Glory? His Good?

⁴⁸ Copyists dotted after as if it were plural. Translators thought it referred to Yehovah"s backside. Yehovah doesn"t have a backside. Review Ezekiel 1 again, and keep in mind that the Hebrew of Ezekiel 1:1 declares that these things are the appearances of God. If Yehovah had a backside, one could get away from Him and His view (sight) by going around to His backside. This After must be the same as His Glory, His Good and Yehovah Himself (from verse 22: "unto my crossing over").

⁴⁹ Copyists dotted the word as if it were passive: "my faces shall not be seen." I don"t hold to their dottings since they are not infallible (they were not part of the original documents). You choose which rendering you desire to follow. In either case, seeing Yehovah's faces will not occur since this would have deadly consequences.

http:www.sschotsprings.com/exodus_33.html