The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 33:3

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Unto a land. Exodus 33:2 is parenthetic, and Exodus 33:3 coheres with Exodus 33:1—"Go up hence, thou and the people, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham—unto a land flowing," etc. On the milk and honey of Canaan, see the comment upon Exodus 3:8.

For I will not go up in the midst of thee. At length there was an end of ambiguity—God's purpose was made plain—the people had shown themselves unfit for his near presence, and he would withdraw himself.

So it would be best even for them; since, if they were about to show- themselves as perverse in the future as they had in the past, his near presence could only lead to their entire destruction. Some day they would so provoke him, that he would consume them in the way.

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