Moses Sees God's Glory

¹²Moses said to the LORD, "You say to me, 'Lead this people,' but you haven't told me who you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have found favor with me.'" ¹³So if I truly have found favor with you, please show me your ways so I can know you and continue to find favor with you. And remember — this nation is your people." ¹⁴The LORD answered, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." ¹⁵Moses replied, "If your presence isn't going with us, then don't send us from here at all. ¹⁶How will anyone know that your people and I have found favor with you unless you go with us? That's what sets us apart from every other nation on the face of the earth." ¹⁷The LORD said to Moses, "I will do exactly what you've asked, because you have found favor with me, and I know you by name." ¹⁸Then Moses said, "Please — show me your glory." ¹⁹The LORD replied, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name — the LORD — in your presence. I will be gracious to whoever I choose to be gracious to, and I will show mercy to whoever I choose to show mercy to." ²⁰But he added, "You cannot see my face, because no one can see me and live." ²¹Then the LORD said, "Look — there is a place near me where you can stand on a rock. ²²And it will happen that while my glory passes by, I will place you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back. But my face must not be seen." Chapter 34¹The LORD told Moses, "Chisel out 2 stone tablets just like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you broke." ²"Be ready by morning. Come up Mount Sinai and stand before me at the top of the mountain." ³"No one is allowed to come with you. No one should even be seen anywhere on the mountain. Don't let any flocks or herds graze near it." ⁴So Moses chiseled out 2 stone tablets just like the originals. He got up early the next morning and climbed Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded, carrying the 2 stone tablets in his hands. ⁵The LORD came down in the cloud, stood there with him, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. ⁶The LORD passed in front of Moses and declared: "The LORD! The LORD God — merciful and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with goodness and truth, ⁷"Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and by no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children's children, to the 3rd and to the 4th generation." ⁸Moses immediately bowed low to the ground and worshiped. ⁹He said, "If I have now found grace in your sight, O LORD, please let my LORD go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."