30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make iatonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, jif you will forgive their sin—kbut if not, please blot me out of lyour book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will mblot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, nmy angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
The Command to Leave Sinai
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I oswore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an pangel before you, and qI will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to ra land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, slest I consume you on the way, for you are a tstiff-necked people.”
4 uWhen the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
Moses’ Intercession
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please zshow me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, a“My presence will go with you, and I will give you brest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that cwe are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me dyour glory.” 19 And he said, e“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will fproclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And gI will hbe gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, i“you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and jI will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall ksee my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
