Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Dear HH,

We both agree that Moses did not see Yahweh s face during 
the Ex 33 encounter on the mountain.  We seem to disagree 
on whether the text says that Moses saw Yahweh s glory. I 
will grant you that the text is less fully clear.  However,  
Ex 33:19 makes no sense unless it was a very indirect NO.  
If in fact Yahweh plans on showing Moses His glory, then 
what is the point of Ex 33:19?

Further, in Ex 33:22 it is hard to read that as allowing 
Moses to see Yahweh s glory.  Again Yahweh picks up Moses, 
puts him into a crevice of a rock, and covers the crevise 
with His hand.  Only after Yahweh has moved to some other 
location that only allows Moses to see Yahweh s backside 
does Yahweh remove His hand.  

Did Moses see Yahweh s glory before he was placed in the 
crevice?  Since the first two verbs are qal perfect with 
the subejct being glory and Moses respectively and the 1st 
verb followed by an infinitive construct of to pass, it 
would seem that the action of putting (Moses) was complete 
before the action of passing (glory) was completed.

Did Moses see Yahweh s glory after he was placed in the 
crevice?  The text does not say he does, it merely says he 
saw Yahweh s backside.  Certainly, there were plenty of 
other occations where Moses saw Yahweh s glory and the text 
said so (e.g. Lev 9:23).

That is how I see it.  

Jack Tladatsi