2. I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
3. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. However, I will not go up in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”
4. When the people heard this disturbing word, they mourned. And no one put on his ornaments.
5. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for one moment, I might destroy you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, so that I may know what I will do to you.’ ”
6. The children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
7. Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting. And anyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.
8. So whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and stand, every man at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.
9. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses.
10. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at the entrance of his tent.
11. The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When he returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent.
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 grace in My sight.’
13. Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, and that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too that this nation is Your people.”