Exodus 34:29-35, annotated

This translation is from the New American Standard Bible. Other translations are available here. Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.   Collections of scriptures dealing with similar principles are hyperlinked at the end of this post.

 

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It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. ³⁰So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. ³²Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.³⁴But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, ³⁵ the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.

 

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skin = עוֹר = ʿôr Blue Letter Bible  skin, hide; leather  

 

face   Blue Letter Bible  person; countenance; before and behind, toward, in front of; in the presence of, in the face of, at the face or front of; turned toward; turn one’s face toward; on account of; acts done with a solemn sense of presence; to stand before, i.e. wait upon, be in attendance on; to bow down before; in front

 

shone = קָרַן = qāran Blue Letter Bible  to shine; to send out rays, radiate, emit beams; to display or grow horns, be horned, to shoot out horns

 

speaking = דָּבַר = dabar  Blue Letter Bible  to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing; to speak with one another, talk; answer; pronounce; teach; use (entreaties), utter; to lead, to guide; to direct a people; admonish; speak kindly, console; speak friendly, peaceably with anyone; to announce welfare

 

commanded = צָוָה = ṣāvâ Blue Letter Bible command, charge, give orders, lay charge, give charge to, order; to constitute, enjoin; appoint; put, (set) in order; delegate

 

all = כֹּל = kol  Blue Letter Bible  the whole; any, each, every, anything; totality, everything, of all kinds, every sort

 

spoken = דָּבַר = dabar  Blue Letter Bible  to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing; to speak with one another, talk; answer; pronounce; teach; use (entreaties), utter; to lead, to guide; to direct a people; admonish; speak kindly, console; speak friendly, peaceably with anyone; to announce welfare

 

went in = בּוֹא = bô' Blue Letter Bible to go in, enter, come, go, come in; to bring in, cause to come in, gather, cause to come, bring near, bring upon; carry; fetch; follow;entering into specific relations; walk, associate with

 

before = פָּנִים = paniym   Blue Letter Bible  person; countenance; before and behind, toward, in front of; in the presence of, in the face of, at the face or front of; turned toward; turn one’s face toward; on account of; acts done with a solemn sense of presence; to stand before, i.e. wait upon, be in attendance on; to bow down before; in front

 

speak = דָּבַר = dabar  Blue Letter Bible  to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing; to speak with one another, talk; answer; pronounce; teach; use (entreaties), utter; to lead, to guide; to direct a people; admonish; speak kindly, console; speak friendly, peaceably with anyone; to announce welfare

 

see  = רָאָה= rā'â  Blue Letter Bible  to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider; learn about, observe, watch, look upon, look out, find out; consider, look at, give attention to, discern, distinguish; gaze at; enjoy, have experience, take heed; spy, stare; enjoy the light; be pleased with the sight; provide or care for, go to see

 

face   Blue Letter Bible  person; countenance; before and behind, toward, in front of; in the presence of, in the face of, at the face or front of; turned toward; turn one’s face toward; on account of; acts done with a solemn sense of presence; to stand before, i.e. wait upon, be in attendance on; to bow down before; in front

 

shone = קָרַן = qāran Blue Letter Bible  to shine; to send out rays, radiate, emit beams; to display or grow horns, be horned, to shoot out horns

 

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Wisdom Principles--We Should Strive to Live in God’s Presence 

 

Wisdom Principles--True Piety

Exodus 33:12-22, annotated

This translation is from the New American Standard Bible. Other translations are available here.  Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.   Collections of scriptures dealing with similar principles are hyperlinked at the end of this post.

 

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Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” ¹⁴And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” ¹⁵Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. ¹⁶ For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”

 

¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” ¹⁸Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” ¹⁹And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” ²⁰But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” ²¹Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; ²²and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.

 

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pray = נָא = nā' Blue Letter Bible   I pray, now, please; used in entreaty or exhortation; a primitive particle of incitement and entreaty; oh; expresses an entreaty or admonition

 

know =יָדַע= yāḏaʿ  Blue Letter Bible  perceive and see, find out and discern; discriminate, distinguish; know by experience; recognize; be acquainted with; know (a person carnally); know how, be skillful in; have knowledge, be wise; made known, be or become known, be revealed; be instructed; privy to; seeing; observe with the eyes; be aware of; get to know, discover; turn the mind to anything, care about, see about

 

presence = פָּנִים = paniym   Blue Letter Bible  person; countenance; before and behind, toward, in front of; in the presence of, in the face of, at the face or front of; turned toward; turn one’s face toward; on account of; acts done with a solemn sense of presence; to stand before, i.e. wait upon, be in attendance on; to bow down before; in front

 

rest = נוּחַ = nûaḥ Blue Letter Bible to rest, settle down and remain; cause to alight, set down; to be left, be placed; give comfort; sit, set one’s self down; be at rest, reside, remain; deposit, let down; lay upon 

 

with = עִם = ʿim Blue Letter Bible  Accompanying; beside; among, between; fellowship and companionship; together with; in conjunction with; the companionship of sufferings or prosperity; of a common lot; resemblance generally; close to, beside; in the service of; in the custody or care of; friendly with; in one's consciousness, whether of knowledge or memory or purpose; together; a common lot; near

 

pray = נָא = nā' Blue Letter Bible   I pray, now, please; used in entreaty or exhortation; a primitive particle of incitement and entreaty; oh; expresses an entreaty or admonition

 

goodness = טוּב = ṭûḇ Blue Letter Bible  goods, good things, goodness; fairness, beauty, joy, prosperity, goodness; goodness (of taste, discernment); beauty, gladness, welfare; best;  cheerfulness; produce of the land to be eaten

 

gracious = חָנַן = ḥānan   Blue Letter Bible   to be gracious, show favour, pity; have mercy on; be shown consideration; to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior

 

compassion = רָחַם = rāḥam  Blue Letter Bible   to love, love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate, have tender affection, have compassion; to fondle; behold with tenderest affection

 

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Wisdom Principles--We Should Strive to Live in God’s Presence 

 

Wisdom Principles--God Loves and Calls us to Him, In Spite of our Sin 

Exodus 33:1-11, annotated

 

This translation is from the New American Standard Bible. Other translations are available here.  Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.   

 

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Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ ²I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. ³Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

 

⁴When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are an obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I shall do with you.’” ⁶So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

 

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the Lord would speak with Moses. ¹⁰When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. ¹¹Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

 

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obstinate = קָשֶׁה = qāšê Blue Letter Bible hard, cruel, severe, obstinate; difficult; fierce, intense, vehement; stubborn, stiff of neck, stiff-necked; churlish; heavy, impudent; sorrowful; in trouble; firm, fast; difficult; severe; rough; relentless 

 

destroy = כָּלָה = kālâ  Blue Letter Bible cease, consume, determine, end, fail, be ended, be at an end, be spent; wasted; use up; finish, be complete, be accomplished 

 

sad = רַע = raʿ  Blue Letter Bible  bad, evil, disagreeable, malignant, unpleasant, giving pain, unhappiness, misery, displeasing; sad, unhappy; hurtful; unkind, vicious in disposition, wicked (ethically)

 

mourning = אָבַל = 'āḇal  Blue Letter Bible lament; bewail; be languid, walk with your head cast down 

 

obstinate = קָשֶׁה = qāšê Blue Letter Bible hard, cruel, severe, obstinate; difficult; fierce, intense, vehement; stubborn, stiff of neck, stiff-necked; churlish; heavy, impudent; sorrowful; in trouble; firm, fast; difficult; severe; rough; relentless 

 

put off = יָרַד = yāraḏ Blue Letter Bible  to go down, descend, decline, march down, sink down; to bring or send down; cause to flow down; to be cast down, fall; be prostrated

 

ornaments = עֲדִי = ʿăḏî  Blue Letter Bible  trappings; finery; generally an outfit; specifically, a headstall; feeding pride 

 

stripped themselves = נָצַל = nāṣal Blue Letter Bible to snatch away, deliver, rescue; to be torn out or away; defend; preserve; draw out, pull out

 

sought = בָּקַשׁ = baqash  Blue Letter Bible  seek, require, desire, exact, request; desire, demand; beg, beseech; strive after, try to get

 

go out  = יָצָא = yāṣā’  Blue Letter Bible  to cause to go or come out, bring out, lead out; to go out, to carry, pluck, pull out; send with commandment, shoot forth; carry or bring out; take or draw out; come out, exit, go forth; to deliver; bring forth (out, up), carry out; go forth; to rise 

 

arise = קוּם = qûm  Blue Letter Bible  to rise, arise, stand, rise up; become powerful, strengthen; come on the scene; to maintain oneself;  be established; endure; abide; continue; be fixed; station; to listen to God's word; arise for action; raise oneself; lift up; go forth; erect, raise up; cause to come forth; constitute

 

worship = שָׁחָה = shachah Blue Letter Bible to bow down, prostrate oneself; before superior in homage; before God in worship; do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship; to fall to one’s knees and touch the forehead to the ground; to honor God with prayers; submit oneself. 

 

depart = מוּשׁ = mûš Blue Letter Bible depart, remove; withdraw

 

Exodus 32:22-35, annotated.

This translation is from the New American Standard Bible. Other translations are available here.  Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.   Collections of scriptures dealing with similar principles are hyperlinked at the end of this post.

 

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Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. ²³For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

 

²⁵Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies— ²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. ²⁷He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” ²⁸So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. ²⁹Then Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”

 

³⁰On the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. ³²But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” ³³The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. ³⁴But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” ³⁵ Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.

 

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dedicate = מָלָא = mālā' Blue Letter Bible  fulness, abundance; to be full; make full; fill a place; mutually fill; satisfied 

 

yourself = יָד = yāḏ  Blue Letter Bible  hand; strength, power (fig.); means, direction; force; ministry 

 

day = יוֹם = yôm  Blue Letter Bible  day, time, year; a working day, a day's journey; the heat of the day; day time, daily; perpetually; lifetime; daily duties, observances, etc.

 

going up  = עָלָה = ʿālâ  Blue Letter Bible to go up, ascend, climb; to be taken up, be brought up, be taken away; to be carried away, be led up; lift (self) up; perfect; recover; restore; from low place to high; go up after; bring up persons; cause to ascend; go from a lower region to a higher; to increase, to become strong; to be elevated

 

atonement = כָּפַר = kāp̄ar  Blue Letter Bible  to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation; pacify, propitiate; cancel; reconcile;  cleanse; annul; forgive; be merciful; pacify; pardon; put away; wipe clean the face; perfect; free from charge; obliterated

 

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Wisdom Principles—God Loves and Calls Us to Him, In Spite of our Sin  

 

Wisdom Principles--Man is Inherently Sinful 

 

Wisdom Principles--Rebuke & Openness to Correction 

Exodus 32:7-21, Annotated

This translation is from the New American Standard Bible. Other translations are available here. Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.

 

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Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” ⁹The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.¹⁰Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

 

¹¹Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” ¹⁴So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

 

¹⁵Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other. ¹⁶The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.” ¹⁸But he said,

 

“It is not the sound of the cry of triumph,
Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat;
But the sound of singing I hear.”

 

¹⁹It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

 

²¹Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?”

 

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corrupted = שָׁחַת = šāḥaṯ  Blue Letter Bible   to destroy, corrupt, go to ruin, decay; to be marred, be spoiled, be injured, be ruined, be rotted; act wickedly; pervert

 

quickly = מַהֵר = mahēr Blue Letter Bible  hurrying, speedy, swift, hastening; quickly, speedily; hasteth, hastily, at once, quickly, soon, speedily, suddenly; 

 

turned aside = סוּר = sûr  Blue Letter Bible  to turn aside, depart; to be removed; to come to an end; depose; retract, abolish; to be taken away; to turn off; eschew; pluck away, put away; made to depart, thrust away; cause to turn aside, depart

 

way = דֶּרֶךְ = dereḵ  Blue Letter Bible  way, road, distance, journey, manner; path; mode; habit, way; course of life; mode of action

 

commanded = צָוָה = ṣāvâ Blue Letter Bible command, charge, give orders, lay charge, give charge to, order; to constitute, enjoin; appoint; put, (set) in order; delegate

 

obstinate = קָשֶׁה = qāšê Blue Letter Bible hard, cruel, severe, obstinate; difficult; fierce, intense, vehement; stubborn, stiff of neck, stiff-necked; churlish; heavy, impudent; sorrowful; in trouble; firm, fast; difficult; severe; rough; relentless