English / ERV
Exodus 33
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1Then the LORD said to Moses, “You and the people you brought out of Egypt must leave this place. Go to the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I promised them that I would give that land to their descendants.
- 2So I will send an angel to go before you, and I will defeat the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. I will force them to leave your land.
- 3So go to the land filled with many good things,[1] but I will not go with you. You people are very stubborn. If I go with you, I might destroy you along the way.”
- 4The people heard this bad news and became very sad, so they stopped wearing jewelry.
- 5This was because the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stubborn people. I might destroy you even if I travel with you only a short time. So take off all your jewelry while I decide[2] what to do with you.’”
- 6So the Israelites stopped wearing their jewelry at Mount Horeb.
- 7Moses used to take a tent a short way outside the camp. He called it “the meeting tent.[3]” Anyone who wanted to ask something from the LORD would go to the meeting tent outside the camp.
- 8Any time Moses went out to the tent, all the people watched him. They stood at the entrance of their tents and watched Moses until he entered the meeting tent.
- 9Whenever Moses went into the tent, the tall cloud would come down and stay at the entrance to the tent. And the Lord would speak with Moses.
- 10So when the people saw the cloud at the entrance of the tent, they would go to the entrance of their own tents and bow down to worship God.
- 11In this way the LORD spoke to Moses face to face like a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would go back to the camp, but his helper, Joshua son of Nun, always stayed in the tent.