Exodus 33:7-11
New Catholic Bible
A Provisional Tent for the Colloquy between God and Moses. 7 Moses took the tent and pitched it quite a distance outside of the camp, calling it the meeting tent. Anyone who sought the Lord would go to the meeting tent that was outside the camp.[a] 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up and each one stood in the door to his tent. They watched Moses pass by until he entered the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, a column of cloud descended and remained at the entrance to the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 The whole people saw the column of cloud that stood at the entrance to the tent, and they all got up and worshiped at the doors to their tents. 11 Thus the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He then returned to the camp while his servant Joshua, son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.[b]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 33:7 Moses took a large tent and erected it outside the camp as a provisional place of meeting with the Lord and as a tribunal, while the definitive tent was being erected, that is, the tabernacle or tent of meeting (see Ex 40:2), which was to stand in the midst of the camp (Num 2:2).
- Exodus 33:11 Moses meets the Lord face to face: this account is from a different source than the one in verse 20, which says that it is impossible for even Moses to see the face of God. The sacred writer is not concerned to harmonize the two divergent traditions.
