Exodus 33:11-23 (Vespers, 1st reading)
- 11
- So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
- 12
- Then 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 grace in My sight.’
- 13
- “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
- 14
- And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
- 15
- Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
- 16
- “For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
- 17
- So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
- 18
- And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
- 19
- Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
- 20
- But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
- 21
- And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
- 22
- “So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
- 23
- “Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”