Exodus 33:15-17

33:15 And Moses ¹  said to him, “If your presence does not go ²  with us, ³  do not take us up from here. ⁴  33:16 For how will it be known then that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?” ⁵ 

33:17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have requested, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know ⁶  you by name.”

[33:15]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:15]  ² tn The construction uses the active participle to stress the continual going of the presence: if there is not your face going.

[33:15]  ³ tn “with us” has been supplied.

[33:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “from this.”

[33:16]  ⁵ sn See W. Brueggemann, “The Crisis and Promise of Presence in Israel,” HBT 1 (1979): 47-86; and N. M. Waldman, “God’s Ways – A Comparative Note,” JQR 70 (1979): 67-70.

[33:17]  ⁶ tn The verb in this place is a preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive, judging from the pointing. It then follows in sequence the verb “you have found favor,” meaning you stand in that favor, and so it means “I have known you” and still do (equal to the present perfect). The emphasis, however, is on the results of the action, and so “I know you.”