Ex. 33 God refuseth to go with the people as formerly, Ex. 33:1–3. The people mourn, Ex. 33:4. God’s command what to say to the children of Israel, Ex. 33:5. They mourn, and lay by their ornaments, Ex. 33:6. Moses pitcheth the tabernacle without the camp, Ex.

I will not go up in the midst of thee by my own special and gracious presence, as hitherto I have done, but I will depart from thee. In pursuance hereof God removes his tabernacle without the camp, Ex. 33:7.

Their precious garments or jewels, which the women reserved, as we saw, Ex. 33:3. This was a visible sign and profession of their inward humiliation and repentance for their sin, and of their deep sense of God’s displeasure.

I will come up into the midst of thee, to wit, in anger; not in favour, Ex. 33:3, where the words are the same, but the sense differing, and consume thee. Object. But God had promised he would not do so, Ex. 33:3. Answ.

The tabernacle was a tent set up by Moses for the people to meet in for sacrifice and seeking of God, and other parts of God’s worship, until the great tabernacle should be finished; for such a place was necessary, or highly expedient for that use, and therefore it is not probable they would be…

Testifying their grief for God’s departure, their respect to Moses, whom they had lately despised, their earnest desire of his intercession for them, their longing for God’s favour, and their humble expectation of a gracious return from God by the hands of Moses.

Whereby God testified his approbation of Moses, and of that which Moses had done, which might seem to some severe and cruel.

Face to face, or, mouth to mouth, as Num. 12:8. Not that God hath face or mouth, or that Moses could behold it, which is denied, Ex. 33:20. But the sense is, he spake with him freely and familiarly, and immediately, not by an angel in a dream or vision, as he did to other prophets. See Deut. 34:10.

Whom thou wilt send with me, i.e. what angel it is, whether it be a created angel, for then I profess I am unsatisfied with him, Ex. 33:15; or the same uncreated Angel Christ, who hath hitherto accompanied us, and then I am content.

Show me now thy way; the course and manner of thy dealings with men, and particularly thy purpose and will concerning me and thy people, and the method which thou wilt choose for the fulfilling of thy promise, and the course which thou wouldst have me take, and the way by which I shall conduct thy…

My presence, Heb. my face, i.e. I myself, by comparing this with 2 Sam. 17:11. The Angel of my presence, Isa. 63:9; the pledge of my presence, the cloudy pillar; and I will not turn thee over to an angel, as I threatened, Ex. 34:2, Deut. 4:34.

Let us rather live and die in the wilderness with thy presence and favour, than go into Canaan without it; for even that promise of rest I value not without thy presence. So he echoes back God’s words to himself, and turns God’s promise into a prayer.

Wherein shall it be known here? by what other token shall other nations and after-ages know? So shall we be separated, i.e. distinguished by thy peculiar kindness and privileges afforded to us. Or, be made wonderful, or eminent, or glorious above all other people.

i.e. Thy glorious majesty, the brightness of thy countenance, some such manifestation of thyself as becomes thy excellency, and such as shall be seen in the other life; or that glorious shape which, together with a human voice, thou hast now assumed.

All my goodness, or, my beauty; for so that Hebrew word is sometimes used, Gen. 6:2, 1 Sam. 9:2; or my excellency, or my glory, as appears from Ex. 33:22, which was the thing Moses desired to see; and the difference between his request and God’s answer doth not lie in glory and goodness, but in…

My face; either, 1. My essence. But that no man can see, neither in this life, nor in the next. Or rather, 2. My glorious presence. This may note either, 1. God’s purpose that that blissful vision of God in glory shall be given to no man here, but is reserved for the future life. Or rather, 2.

There is a place by me, in this mountain where my residence and glorious presence now is, and in that part of it whence my voice now cometh to thine ears.

That thou mayst not be undone by thy own desires, nor swallowed up with the sight of my glory.

My back parts, i.e. imperfectly and in part, as when we see only a man’s back parts, and not his face. Thou shalt see a shadow or obscure delineation of my glory, as much as thou canst bear, though not as much as thou dost desire.