Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God still threatens the people, and they mourn; Moses, praying, at last fully reconciles God to the people, and obtains that not an angel but God Himself should be the guide of the way. Second, at verse 18, Moses asks to see the glory of God, and hears: You shall see My back parts, but My face you shall not be able to see.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 33:1-23
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, depart from this place, you and your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, into the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: To your seed I will give it. 2. And I will send an angel as your precursor, that I may cast out the Canaanite, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, 3. and that you may enter the land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up with you, because you are a stiff-necked people, lest perhaps I destroy you on the way. 4. And when the people heard this very bad news, they mourned; and no one put on his customary attire. 5. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: You are a stiff-necked people; if I should go up once in your midst, I would destroy you. Now therefore put aside your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you. 6. So the children of Israel laid aside their ornaments from Mount Horeb. 7. Moses also, taking the tabernacle, pitched it outside the camp at a distance, and called its name the Tabernacle of the Covenant. And all the people who had any question would go out to the Tabernacle of the Covenant, outside the camp. 8. And when Moses went out to the tabernacle, all the people would rise up and each one would stand at the entrance of his tent, and they would watch the back of Moses until he entered the tent. 9. And when he had entered the Tabernacle of the Covenant, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance, and it would speak with Moses, 10. while all observed that the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance of the tabernacle. And they would stand and worship at the doors of their own tents. 11. And the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man is accustomed to speak to his friend. And when he returned to the camp, his minister Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. 12. And Moses said to the Lord: You command me to lead forth this people, and You do not indicate to me whom You will send with me, especially since You have said: I know you by name, and you have found grace before Me. 13. If therefore I have found grace in Your sight, show me Your face, that I may know You, and may find grace before Your eyes; look upon this people, Your nation. 14. And the Lord said: My face shall go before you, and I will give you rest. 15. And Moses said: If You Yourself do not go before us, do not lead us out of this place. 16. For how shall we be able to know, I and Your people, that we have found grace in Your sight, unless You walk with us, that we may be glorified by all the peoples who dwell upon the earth? 17. And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which you have spoken, I will do; for you have found grace before Me, and I have known you yourself by name. 18. And he said: Show me Your glory. 19. He answered: I will show you all good, and I will call out in the name of the Lord before you; and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be gracious to whom it shall please Me. 20. And again He said: You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live. 21. And again: Behold, He said, there is a place with Me, and you shall stand upon the rock. 22. And when My glory shall pass by, I will set you in the cleft of the rock, and I will protect you with My right hand until I pass. 23. And I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back parts; but My face you shall not be able to see.
Verse 1: And the Lord Spoke to Moses
Namely, when Moses had already ascended Mount Sinai a second time, as was said in chapter 32, verse 31, on which he remained continuously for the same number of days as he had remained before, namely forty, seeking pardon for the sin of the people; and at the end of these second forty days he received the second tablets of the law (for he had already broken the first ones in chapter 32, verse 19), as is clear from chapter 34, verse 28, and Deuteronomy 9:18 and 10:1.
Go, etc., into the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God expressly swore only to Abraham that He would give him Canaan; but to Isaac and Jacob He only promised it, yet in a similar form as to Abraham -- that is, referring back to what had been done with Abraham. Therefore, by promising them the same thing He had promised to Abraham, and by ratifying and confirming it, He implicitly swore to them the same thing He had sworn to Abraham.
Verse 2: I Will Send an Angel as Your Precursor
This is an apostrophe from God to the people; for a little before, God had been speaking to Moses, but here He turns to the people, and speaks to Moses as the intermediary of the people, bearing their person. A precursor angel -- who will go before you in the pillar of cloud and fire, and going before you will terrify the Canaanites and pave the way to victory against them for you -- in such a way, that is, that this angel would not represent the person of God, as he had done heretofore, but his own person, and would be called an angel, not God; and consequently would accompany you only in an angelic manner and with simple guardianship, as your guardian; but would not perform those illustrious miracles which he had heretofore performed by the power and authority of God, as one bearing and representing the name and person of God.
Verse 3: For I Will Not Go Up with You
I will not accompany you, I will not be present to you as I have been heretofore, namely through that singular patronage and through the performance of so many signs and miracles. For spiritual beings are felt to be most present through their own proper and proportionate activity. So Abulensis, and this can be gathered from the Chaldean version of verse 16.
You are a stiff-necked people -- that is: You are a stubborn, disobedient, refractory people; hence, lest you provoke Me to anger, I do not wish to accompany you, but I will send an angel to lead you. This exchange of persons and change of address is commonly found among the Hebrews.
Lest perhaps I destroy you -- lest I avenge your most grievous ingratitude and irreverence toward Me and My majesty, as the Chaldean has it -- namely, if I, showing Myself present to you through so many miracles, and so merciful, and loving you and caring for you, should nevertheless be neglected by you, despised, and ranked below idols, as I was already ranked below the calf.
Verse 4: And When the People Heard This Very Bad News
They mourned; and no one put on his customary attire. What is said here about the people has been inserted out of its proper order. For it interrupts the continuous conversation of God with Moses, which took place during those second forty days on the mountain. And so Moses here, according to his custom, intersperses into the conversation with God a historical note consonant with the words of God -- namely, what the people said and did in response to the Lord's words when they heard them. This happened not on the same day on which the Lord had said these things to Moses, but after the forty days of conversation between Moses and God on Sinai -- namely, when those days had elapsed and Moses descended from the mountain and told the people what he had discussed with the Lord and what God had said. For when they heard these things, the people, recognizing that God was still angry with them on account of the idol of the calf, mourned and laid aside their ornaments; and, as the Septuagint translates, they mourned in mourning garments -- that is, in mournful clothing. There is therefore here a hysteron proteron (reversal of chronological order): for Moses remained on the mountain with the Lord for the full forty days and did not descend until day 39, in order to hew the tablets of the law; and immediately on the same day he ascended the mountain again, and on the following day, the fortieth, God inscribed the Decalogue on the tablets, as will be shown in the following chapter. So Abulensis.
Verse 5: And the Lord Said to Moses
Namely, on the same occasion on which He had spoken to Moses in verses 1, 2, and 3; whence God here repeats and presses home the same things He had said there, in order to bend the Hebrews more toward repentance; this is clear from what was said at verse 4.
If I should go up once, I will destroy you. This is a severe rebuke, meaning: If I should attack you even once, I will utterly destroy you.
Now therefore lay aside your ornaments. Hence it is clear that the Hebrews had not laid aside their ornaments shortly before in verse 4, but that this is said there by anticipation; for otherwise they would not afterward in this verse be commanded to lay aside their ornaments, if they had already laid them aside. These ornaments were clean and festive garments which they had put on when they were about to receive the law at Sinai, chapter 19, verse 10, and which they had not laid aside up to this point, inasmuch as God was still speaking with them through Moses. Whence the Septuagint translates: Take away the robes of your glory. So Oleaster and others. The Chaldean, however, explains it thus: Lay aside your ornaments -- that is, your weapons of war.
Jerome Prado adds, in his commentary on Ezekiel 24, page 312, and others -- as I noted at chapter 32, verse 25 -- that by "ornaments" here are understood golden or linen garlands which the Hebrews had placed upon themselves at Sinai, as a symbol of their betrothal to God. Whence the Hebrew word 'adi signifies robes, veils, silken mantles, necklaces, crowns, and similar adornments that are attached and applied to garments, rather than the garments themselves, whether ornate -- that is, elegant, costly, and festive.
Note: Just as a master who has decided to beat a servant for wrongdoing orders him to be stripped, so here God willed that Israel should strip itself, as it were, and present itself naked before God to be beaten with scourges, so that by this outward sign of humility and repentance it might obtain pardon. Similarly, those who formerly performed public penance in the Church, having laid aside their adornments and clothed themselves in sackcloth, would present themselves to the priests as guilty persons ready for punishment and discipline.
That I may know what to do with you -- that is: So that, seeing your repentance, I may determine what kind of punishment, whether light or more severe, I should further inflict upon you.
Verse 6: The Children of Israel Laid Aside Their Ornaments
Both moved by their spontaneous mourning and prompted by the Lord's command. Here again the conversation of God with Moses is interrupted by a historical narration of what God had commanded; for this laying aside of ornaments occurred after the forty days, when Moses returned from the mountain and from God to the people.
From Mount Horeb -- that is, at Mount Horeb (it is an interchange of prepositions), namely while they were encamped near Horeb, or Sinai, where God appeared angered on account of the calf.
Verse 7: Moses Pitched the Tabernacle Outside the Camp
Note that these things too, and what follows up to verse 12, are said by anticipation and should, in their proper order, be inserted after chapter 34. That this is so is clear, first, from the fact that these events are joined to the preceding laying aside of ornaments, as though they happened at the same time; but the laying aside of ornaments occurred after the fortieth day, namely when Moses had already descended from the mountain. For Moses wished to narrate and join these things together as signs of repentance by which the people showed that they repented of their idol. For by the very fact that the tabernacle was pitched outside the camp, the camp was stripped of its greatest adornment and seemed, as it were, to be excommunicated. The same is clear, secondly, from the fact that it is said here that at that time this tabernacle was called the Tabernacle of the Covenant -- namely, from the second tablets of the law, by which the covenant was established anew, which Moses deposited in this tabernacle as the dwelling-place of God. For it is certain that Moses did not receive these second tablets, which confirmed the covenant, before the aforementioned fortieth day. Thirdly, because Moses ascended the mountain a second time in the preceding chapter, verse 31, and remained there for forty continuous days, as is clear from the following chapter, verse 28. Therefore the events that are interspersed here occurred after these forty days, when Moses had already descended from the mountain -- unless you say that these forty days were interrupted by one day on which Moses descended from the mountain and conducted with the people the matters recounted here from verse 4 to verse 12. But this is not probable, for Moses, in the following chapter, verse 28, indicates clearly enough that he was with God on the mountain for forty continuous days and nights. So Abulensis.
The tabernacle. This tabernacle was not the one which the Lord commanded to be made in chapter 26, and which is narrated as having been made and erected after these events in chapter 40, in which the urn with the manna, the ark, and the Cherubim were deposited; for none of these things had been fabricated at this time. Rather, this tabernacle was a small tent of Moses, inasmuch as he was the leader of the people; whence the elders were accustomed to gather there to hold council with Moses. The pillar of cloud also rested upon this tabernacle, which was the guide of the journey. Finally, God at the entrance of this tabernacle would show Himself to be seen through the cloud, and there He would converse with Moses while the people watched, and He would give responses, as is stated here. When this tabernacle was made is uncertain. From what has been said, it is credible that it was made at about the same time that the pillar of cloud was given by God to the camp of the Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 21. The use of this tabernacle ceased when that other splendid one was built, which the Lord commanded to be made in chapter 26 and which was made and erected in chapter 40.
Whence the Chaldean calls this tabernacle the house of doctrine, because in it Moses was taught by God concerning the affairs and cases about which he consulted Him.
Verse 8: When Moses Went Out to the Tabernacle
All the people would rise -- as though by rising and standing they were showing reverence to God, and to Moses who was acting in God's stead and was their head and ruler.
Verse 9: And He Spoke with Moses
Namely, the pillar of cloud which went before -- that is, the angel who was covered by the pillar of cloud -- and this angel was acting in God's stead. Whence in verse 11 it is said that the Lord spoke -- namely, not by Himself, but through this angel who presided over the column. And this was done so that the people might revere Moses and know that he was promulgating not his own commands but those of God.
Verse 10: They Worshipped at the Doors of Their Tents
That is: Each one worshipped God, standing or rather kneeling at the door of his tent, turning toward the tabernacle of Moses, in which the angel, in God's stead, spoke with Moses through the pillar of cloud.
Verse 11: The Lord Spoke to Moses Face to Face
The Chaldean translates word for word; the Septuagint renders it enopios enopio, that is, present to the present one, face to face. Therefore it is probable that this angel appeared to Moses in a corporeal and human form and conversed with him; yet Moses, recognizing him to be not a man but an angel acting in God's stead, listened to him and responded with the greatest humility and reverence.
Tropologically, Saint Jerome, on Psalm 133, says: The Lord Jesus has those who minister to Him as though in His presence -- namely, monks and virgins; He has others who serve Him, as it were, in the fields -- namely, people living in the world.
His minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Joshua is called here a "young man" (puer), not by reason of age, for he had already led the battle against Amalek in chapter 17; but by reason of obedience, innocence, and discipline, for he was a disciple of Moses and was being trained by him as his future successor in the governance of the people. Thus throughout Scripture, disciples and servants are called "boys" (pueri), because they are lesser than and subordinate to their master or lord; and conversely, lords and masters are called "fathers." So Elisha calls Elijah "father," saying: "My father, the chariot of Israel and its driver." So the servants of Naaman call him "father," 2 Kings 5:13. So Abraham's servant is called a "boy," Genesis 18:7. So Gehazi is called the "boy" of Elisha. So David speaks to his "boys," that is, his servants; and throughout the Books of Kings, servants are called "boys."
Joshua therefore did not depart from the tabernacle, so as to guard the sacred place, as it were, in the absence of Moses, and to preserve the tablets of the law; at the same time, he devoted himself to prayer and contemplation.
For a tropological interpretation of Moses' departure from the tabernacle to the camp, see Saint Gregory, Pastoral Care, Part II, chapter 5: "Those who are set over others must frequently consult the Lord, yet they should not so eagerly seek Him in contemplation as not also to descend below in compassion to His members."
Verse 12: Moses Said to the Lord
Scripture returns to the interrupted narration of the Lord's conversation with Moses; therefore these words should be connected with verse 5.
You command me to lead forth this people, and You do not indicate to me whom You will send with me. The Lord had said to Moses: "My angel shall go before you," but He had not designated any particular one. But Moses, not content with the guidance and companionship of an angel, wanted God Himself to accompany them and be the leader of the camp. This Moses here asks modestly, and therefore ambiguously and in general terms, saying: "You do not indicate to me whom You will send." And with growing boldness of speech and spirit, he explains it more clearly when he adds in verse 13: "Show me Your face" -- meaning: Send that Face with us; let Your face lead us and go before us on the way. Rupert and Lipomanus think that Moses is asking God to send Christ, for He is the One who was to be sent. But this is not the literal sense.
Especially since You have said: I know you by name. The Septuagint renders: I know you beyond all others -- meaning: Above all others I have chosen and loved you, and you are pleasing to Me.
Verse 13: Show Me Your Face
In Hebrew: Show me Your way, so that You Yourself and Your face may go before us and show us the way; for this is Your way. Whence the Septuagint translates: Show me Yourself manifestly, or, recognizably. Therefore Eugubinus unjustly criticizes the Septuagint and our translator here. Hence it is clear that Moses was not asking here for a vision of God or of the divine essence, as Saint Augustine seems to hold in Epistle 112 and Book II of the Trinity, chapter 16, and Saint Gregory in Book XVIII of the Morals, chapter 36, and Saint Thomas on 2 Corinthians 12; for shortly afterward Moses will ask for a clearer vision of God, which God will deny him, though He grants these earlier petitions of his.
That I may know You -- that is: That I may recognize You as appeased, propitious, and present to me and to the people.
Verse 14: My Face Shall Go Before You
That is: I Myself will go before you; for this is what Moses had asked in verse 13, namely that not an angel but God Himself would be present and go before the camp of the Hebrews. This God here grants to Moses; whence the Chaldean translates: My majesty shall go before you.
Therefore the interpretation of Rupert and Abulensis, who understand by "face" some primary angel who would be called the angel of the face because he stands nearest to God, is foreign to the meaning of Scripture.
Now God uses the word "face"; for He does not say "I" but "My face shall go before you." First, because, as Saint Gregory says in Book 18 of the Morals, chapter 2, by "face" is signified acquaintance and familiarity -- meaning: I with My face will go before you familiarly and constantly through every difficulty, and will show the way as easy and open, however impassable it may seem. Second, because by the word "face" is signified the regard of grace, which was going to lead the Hebrews successfully into the promised land.
Here therefore God grants Moses what he had asked, and thereby shows that He is fully reconciled to the people, and grants His former presence for winning illustrious victories and for performing magnificent, miraculous, and divine works on behalf of the Hebrews. But God accomplished these things not immediately by Himself, but through the angel who presided over the column and led the army of the Hebrews, to whom He delegated His office and whom He so endowed with His power and authority that it is said and appears that not an angel but God goes before the camp. For this alone is what Moses asked, and this is what he obtained.
And I will give you rest -- so that, relying on My presence amid your enemies, supported by signs and miracles, you may rest secure in My help, and at last arrive victorious at the promised land and possess it in peace.
Verse 15: If You Yourself Do Not Go Before Us
For "if You Yourself do not go before us," the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint have: If Your face does not go before us. Whence it is clear that Moses was asking here for nothing other than a confirmation of what the Lord had already granted; but he explains it more fully and urgently -- partly because, attracted by the divine conversation, he desired to enjoy it longer (on which see Saint Ambrose, Book III, Epistle 11, to Irenaeus, who discusses this piously and beautifully); partly because he was driven to this by the vehemence of his desire for the salvation of the people, for Moses feared that the Lord, becoming irritated again in some way, might deny and revoke what He had promised (whence in the following chapter, verse 9, he again makes the same request); and partly because Moses was preparing another petition in verse 18, and to pave the way for it, he dwells on this one longer.
Verse 16: How Shall We Know That We Have Found Grace
The Chaldean translates: How shall we know that we have found grace before You, unless Your majesty walks with us, so that miracles may be done for us and we may be set apart from every people of the earth? You see here that Moses, by "the face of God," was asking for nothing other than illustrious miracles and works of God; whence it follows:
That we may be glorified by all peoples. The Hebrew niphlinu can be translated three ways: first, that we may be glorified; second, that we may be separated; third, that we may be made wonderful. Whence the Chaldean aptly and beautifully translates: That miracles may be done for us. For to this end Moses was seeking not an angel but God Himself as guide of the way; and God granted this to him by giving him an angel who would bear and exercise not the name, person, and power of an angel, but those of God.
Verse 17: This Word Which You Have Spoken, I Will Do
Meaning: I here more expressly confirm what you more expressly asked and kept asking, even though I had already tacitly granted the same thing before -- namely, that I will glorify you through signs and miracles in the sight of all nations; and this from now on, so that you shall not depart from this place except with Me as guide, director, and protector -- though through an angel to whom I delegate My office.
Morally, let princes and prelates, and every one of the faithful, learn here how much they ought to seek God's guidance and direction in all things, as Moses does here; for thus all things will prosper for them. So David prays, Psalm 118 [119]:133: "Direct my steps according to Your word"; and Psalm 24 [25]:4: "Show me Your ways, O Lord, and teach me Your paths." Whence in 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 18:14 it is said of him: "In all his ways David acted prudently, and the Lord was with him." And when Saul was persecuting him, he composed many psalms in which he begs to be protected and directed by God; and so he escaped the hands of Saul, was made king, and most successfully defeated the Syrians, Philistines, Ammonites, and all his enemies.
So Solomon asks to be directed by God: "Give me, O Lord, the wisdom that attends Your throne, for I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid, a weak man," etc., Wisdom 9:4. He gives the same advice, saying: "In all your ways think of Him (God), and He will direct your steps," Proverbs 3:6; and chapter 16, verse 9: "The heart of man plans his way, but it is the Lord's to direct his steps."
So King Jehoshaphat, surrounded by enemies, prays: "Since we do not know what we should do, this alone remains to us: that we direct our eyes toward You." And so he obtained a remarkable victory from God, 2 Chronicles 20:12. Let us imitate him when we find ourselves in dangers, straits, doubts, and perplexities; let us turn with our whole heart to God, and we shall experience similar help, light, and direction from God.
For this reason, Tobias teaches his son, saying in chapter 4, verse 20: "At all times bless God, and ask Him to direct your ways, and that all your plans may remain in Him." And his son, doing so, obtained the angel Raphael as guide of the way, Sarah as his wife, ample riches, and all manner of prosperity -- he even restored his father's sight.
Hence Cassian too advises that before each action we should pray: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me." Whence the Church herself prays this very prayer at the beginning of each of the canonical Hours; and every morning at Prime she prays with David: "Let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us, and direct the works of our hands over us, and direct the work of our hands." And at Prime, Terce, Sext, and None, she recites Psalm 118 [119], in which the Psalmist prays that God may direct our ways in His law.
The reason is, first, because, as Solomon says, Wisdom 9:14: "The thoughts of mortals are fearful, and our foresight uncertain." Therefore they must be directed by the supreme wisdom of God, and His direction must be earnestly sought.
Second, because it pertains to the providence of God to direct the actions of all creatures, especially of men; and this is His proper object. Therefore he invades God's office and does Him an injustice who arrogates this to himself, as though he could be wise by himself without God and could wisely direct himself and his own actions.
Third, because God alone knows future events, both absolutely and conditionally -- namely, what will happen if I do this or that, or if I do not; what I would do in this or that matter, in this or that place, time, state, or condition; and especially whether I will live well and persevere and be saved, or live badly and be damned. Therefore let him who is wise have recourse to God and pray continually: Lord, who have foreknowledge and providence over all things, direct me rightly to salvation, along those paths that hold no occasion of sin, along those ways by which You foreknow I will certainly arrive at the glory for which You created me; and turn aside and ward off from me those paths which, if I should enter upon them, You foreknow I will sin and be damned. For on this the hinge of salvation turns; on this depends my election or reprobation, my glory or damnation.
So the pious Abraham was directed by God, safe and prosperous through all the paths of his pilgrimage. So Jacob was directed, whence the Wise Man says of him in chapter 10 of Wisdom: "She (the wisdom of God) led the just man along right paths, and showed him the kingdom of God (at Bethel), and gave him the knowledge of holy things, and enriched him in his labors, and brought his labors to completion." So Joseph was directed by God, of whom it is said in the same chapter: "She did not abandon the just man when he was sold, etc., until she brought him the scepter of the kingdom, etc., and gave him everlasting glory." So Moses was directed with the Hebrews through the Red Sea, through the desert, with the angel presiding over the column as their guide for forty years, until they reached the promised land.
So Joshua was directed in all the wars by which he destroyed the Canaanites. So Judas Maccabeus was directed, fighting with few against many and always conquering, because he always implored God's guidance before battle -- except in the last one, in which he fell. So Gregory the Wonderworker was directed, who, relying on faith in God, successfully accomplished everything he undertook, and often through miracles; and so, when he came to the episcopate of Neocaesarea and found only 17 believers, at his death he left only 17 unbelievers in the city. So Theodosius, Charlemagne, Charles V, and other pious kings and princes were directed in the wars which they waged most successfully against the enemies of the Church and their own.
Verse 18: Show Me Your Glory
Moses had asked in verse 13, saying: "Show me Your face." God granted this to him. Here he goes further and asks, saying: "Show me Your glory." But this God refuses and declines.
You will ask: What glory of God does Moses seek to see here?
Philo, in his work On the Monarchy, understands by "glory" the ideas and powers that are in God and in the mind of God.
Second, Tertullian understands the glory of Christ's humanity, which He showed in the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor before Moses and Elijah -- about which more shortly.
Third, others understand by "glory" the divine essence, as though Moses had asked to see it. So Saint Jerome, or whoever is the author of the Commentary on Saint Mark, last chapter; Rupert, Lipomanus, and Saint Augustine, Book XII of On Genesis Literally, chapter 27; and Suarez, On the Triune and One God, Book II, chapter 30, number 13. Indeed, Saint Ambrose, in his Sermon 8 on Psalm 118 [119], seems to hold that Moses asked to see the essence of God with bodily eyes: "The holy prophet of the Lord knew," he says, "that he could not see the invisible God face to face; but holy devotion exceeds all measure. He thought therefore that even this was possible for God -- that He could make what is incorporeal be grasped by bodily eyes. A pleasing and insatiable desire, that he wished to hold his Lord with his hand and to see Him with the gaze of his eyes."
But Saint Ambrose seems to be speaking of a vision of the divine essence, not in itself, but in some idea, species, or embodied figure. For he himself seems to have held that the substance of God can be seen by no one, not even by the Blessed, immediately as it is in itself, but only through some light, shadow, veil, or species. This also seems to have been the view of Saint Chrysostom in his work Against the Anomoeans, and of Saint Basil in Book I Against Eunomius; for he rebukes Eunomius for teaching that the substance of God, as it is in itself, can be seen by man -- although some limit this and add "by the powers of nature and in this life." For this is what Eunomius held: namely, that he and similar wise men, by the keenness of their intellect and by their own powers in this life, could see and even comprehend God as He is in Himself -- which Saints Basil, Chrysostom, and Ambrose rightly oppose.
But I say that Moses here only asked that the Lord -- that is, the angel bearing the person of the Lord, who was speaking with him while covered in darkness -- would remove that darkness so that he might clearly see his glory, that is, the outward appearance of his glory; and this for the purpose of obtaining a clearer knowledge of the divine majesty from this vision, and of being able to report and proclaim this glory of God to the people. So we saw in chapter 3, verse 13, that this same Moses asked God to reveal to him the name of God, so that he might set it before the people. For the Lord was speaking with Moses in a corporeal voice, but could not be seen by him because of the darkness. Moses therefore desired to see the form of the one who was speaking with him. That this alone is what Moses asked is clear from the Lord's response, who said: "You cannot see My face" -- that is, My glory, which you so earnestly, O Moses, ask to see. The "glory," then, is the glorious face, or the glorious body of God, which Moses could not see face to face, but only from behind, as I shall presently explain. So Abulensis, Oleaster, and others.
Verse 19: I Will Show You All Good
In Hebrew, I will show my good. Many by this good understand the divine essence (for this is all good), which they think Moses saw in this life. So hold St. Augustine, Epistle 112, chapters 12 and 13; Basil, Homily 4 on the Hexaemeron, who however retracts this in Book I Against Eunomius; Ambrose, Book I on the Hexaemeron, chapter 2; Lyranus, Abulensis, Bede, Hugo, St. Thomas, II II, Question 134, article 3; Durandus, in IV, dist. 46, Question 6; Sixtus of Siena, Book V, chapter 41. But, as I will show at the end of the chapter, nothing can be gathered from this passage for their opinion. Whence
I say: God here grants Moses what he himself had asked, saying: "Show me Your glory." For here He calls this the good of God, or all good; good therefore here means the same as excellence, eminence, and beauty, that is, the glory of God appearing in an assumed body, which in some way reflects the majesty of God, and which is as great as the mortal eye of Moses could receive, as if to say: You ask, O Moses, to see My glorious body; I will show it to you, not from the front, but from the back. Hence the Chaldean translates, I will make all My glory pass over your face; the Hebrew has, I will make all My good pass before your face, which without doubt is nothing other than what is shortly after added: "When My glory shall pass, I will place you in the cleft of the rock, and you shall see My back." So Abulensis, Oleaster, and Molina, who explains it thus: "I will show you all good," that is, something most perfect and most excellent.
And I will call upon the name of the Lord. Some read, and I will be called, that is, and I will cause Myself to be called your God and leader on account of the miracles which I shall work for you, says Hugo. But the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, and Roman Latin have, and I will call, and this is the true reading, as if to say: "I will call upon the name of the Lord," that is, I will cry out the name of the Lord; when, that is, I shall pass before you while you are covered and hidden in the rock, I will cry out, so that you may know that I am passing, and may look back, and see My back; I will cry out, I say, the titles of the name of God, saying, as is said in chapter 34, verse 6: "The Ruler, God, merciful and gracious, patient and true," etc., and this in order to teach you the manner of invoking and beseeching Me, and of addressing Me with these titles. This is clear from the Septuagint, which translates, I will call, the Lord before you; and from chapter 34, verse 6, where the Lord performs for Moses what He here promises him, which is most clear in the Hebrew, in which the same phrase is found in both places: "I will call, therefore, upon the name of the Lord," that is, I will call out and proclaim the titles already mentioned of the name of the Lord, and by calling them out, I will teach you and yours to invoke the same.
I will have mercy on whom I will. The Hebrew, the Septuagint, and from them St. Paul, Romans 9:15, have: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," that is, I will have mercy on whom I will, on whomever shall please or suit Me. This, first, Abulensis, Vatablus, and Lipomanus explain thus, as if to say: I will show you all good, not on account of your merits, but out of My free clemency and mercy. Second, St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Theodoret, and Oecumenius on chapter 9 of Romans explain it thus, as if to say: I will slay by the Levites or by Myself the worshippers of the calf whom I will; but to others, whom I will to pardon, I will show mercy and spare them.
But I say: the genuine sense of this passage is this: I, God, passing before you, O Moses, will call out and proclaim the name of the Lord, saying: "Ruler, Lord," and other titles of God, but especially this: "I will have mercy on whom I will," that is, I am both gracious and merciful, but most freely; for I show mercy to whomever I will. For this title of clemency is expressed in many words in this passage of God, chapter 34, verse 6, where this utterance or calling of God is narrated; for there what is here promised is fulfilled: for God especially wills to be invoked by us with this name of clemency, and that we should rely upon it, and not upon our own merits. For clemency especially befits and adorns a princely, royal, and divine spirit. Therefore, and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be gracious to whomever shall please Me, must be taken technically or materially: for it depends as an object on the verb I will call.
Morally, note here that clemency is something great and divine. "No one is more befitted by clemency than a prince," says Seneca, in his book On Clemency, where you will find many excellent things on this subject; and Cicero, Book I of On Duties: "Nothing," he says, "is more praiseworthy, nothing more worthy of a great and distinguished man than placability and clemency." And Ovid, Book III of the Tristia, elegy 5:
The greater a man is, the more placable is his anger,
And a generous mind receives impressions easily.
It is enough for the magnanimous lion to have struck down bodies:
The fight has its end when the enemy lies fallen.
But the wolf, and the foul bears press upon the dying,
And every beast that is lesser in nobility.
Julius Caesar showed such clemency toward enemies and rebels that Marius said more than once: "Caesar, those who dare to speak before you do not know your greatness; those who do not dare, do not know your humanity and clemency."
Augustus Caesar, summoning Cinna who was plotting his murder: "I," he said, "saved you when you were found in the enemy camp, I granted you your entire patrimony, I honored you with the priesthood: why did you wish to kill me?" With Cinna confused, he thus ended his speech: "I give you your life again, Cinna, previously to an enemy, now to a conspirator and would-be murderer. From this day let friendship begin between us; let us contend whether I have given you your life in better faith, or you owe it to me." And he offered him the consulship. Do you want the outcome? He had Cinna as a most loyal friend forever, and he alone was Cinna's heir. So Suetonius in his Life of Augustus.
Alexander the Great was as clement a victor as he was a fierce warrior, says Plutarch.
The Emperor Nero at the beginning of his reign was so clement that when he had to sign the death sentence of a certain condemned man, he exclaimed: "Would that I did not know how to write!"
The Emperor Titus did not avenge himself on his brother Domitian who was plotting treachery, but admonished him with these words: "What need is there for you to seek by fratricide what is to come to you at my will, indeed what you already have, a share of the empire?" Did not Claudian rightly say:
Since we are surpassed by every
Gift, clemency alone makes us equal to the gods?
The Emperor Aurelian, as Vopiscus attests, when he had come to Tyana and found it closed against him, angrily said: "I will not leave a dog in this town." By this word the soldiers were raised to hope for plunder; but when the city was captured, he answered the soldiers: "Come now; I said I would not leave a dog, kill all the dogs," and thus he satisfied his promise, and treated his enemies with clemency.
Someone had sold glass gems as real ones to the wife of the younger Emperor Gallienus; when the matter was discovered, the woman demanded revenge. Caesar ordered the man to be seized, as if to throw him to a lion. Then into the arena, while the impostor and the people awaited a terrible lion, a goat leaped forth. With everyone amazed at so ridiculous a thing, he ordered a herald to proclaim: "He committed fraud, and he has suffered for it." By this same clemency he refuted the impostor and mocked his wife. So Trebellius Pollio.
The Emperor Alexander Severus, when his wife Memmia and his mother Mammaea objected to him, "that his power was cheapened by excessive clemency," replied: "But it is more secure and longer-lasting." The same man made Ovimus Camillus, a senator who was rebelling and aspiring to tyranny, a partner in the empire, and made him Caesar, says Lampridius.
The Emperor Rudolph, when after a change of character he seemed more clement than was fair to his people, said: "I have sometimes repented of having been severe and harsh, but never of having been gentle and placable." So Aeneas Sylvius, Book II of the Commentary on the Deeds of Alfonso.
King Alfonso, as Panormitanus attests, used to say: "I prefer to save many by my clemency than to destroy a few by my severity." And to the more rigid: "Do you wish," he said, "that lions and bears should rule?" The same man said: "The wicked are more quickly recalled to the path of virtue by kindness than by severity. I," he said, "am pleasing to the good by justice, but to the wicked by clemency." The Emperor Sigismund, as Aeneas Sylvius attests in his Life, "used to say that those kings are blessed who, having expelled the proud from the court, take the meek unto themselves."
Verse 20: You Cannot See My Face
For man shall not see Me and live. He speaks of a corporeal and assumed face (for this is what Moses was asking to see, as I have said), by which the majesty and glory of God represents and exhibits itself to some extent for viewing. For the discourse here is about that face, and not about the face, that is, the essence, of the deity, as is clear from what follows: "You shall see My back, but My face you cannot see." The sense therefore is, as if to say: You desire, O Moses, to see the brightness of My face, so that you may see face to face Him who speaks with you, and whose voice you hear; but know that this cannot be: for this brightness of My face, although corporeal and assumed, because nevertheless it must in some way reflect, shadow forth, and represent the brightness of My essence and majesty, is hence of such a kind and so great that a mortal eye cannot endure it without a person being immediately blinded by this brightness, indeed struck dead and dying; for this is what He says: "Man shall not see Me and live." So Abulensis.
Symbolically, Gregory of Nyssa says: "Man shall not see Me and live," because present knowledge, he says, is finite, but God is infinite.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Book XVIII of the Moralia, chapter 37: No one ever sees God spiritually and lives carnally in the world: for we cannot enjoy God and the world at the same time. On how God is seen by pure minds in this life, see St. Bernard, Sermon 31 on the Song of Songs, and St. Ambrose, Book On the Good of Death, chapter 11.
Verses 21-23: There Is a Place with Me
And you shall stand upon the rock. And when My glory shall pass, I will place you in the cleft of the rock, and I will protect you with My right hand, until I pass: and I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face you cannot see.
St. Augustine, Question 154 on Exodus, denies that a corporeal appearance of God, or of an angel, was here promised by God, or seen by Moses, but says it was a mere prophecy, because we do not read that Moses afterward actually saw God corporeally. The back of God seen by Moses, he judges to be the mysteries of Christ believed by the Jews after His ascension. For when Peter preached, they said: What shall we do? and they were baptized, and received the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:37; and finally at the end of the world all Israel shall be saved. Cajetan follows St. Augustine, saying: What is promised is not something to be done in reality, but it is a parable: the rock signifies the erect and fixed mind by which Moses was elevated to know God intelligibly; the hand of God placed upon the rock signifies that certain attributes were veiled from him, and only those shown which God wished to demonstrate to him, as if by light shining through His hand. But this is a mystical sense. It is certain that literally a vision of God is promised to Moses, that is, of the angel vicar of God in an assumed body, and that this actually befell him will be clear in the following chapter, verses 5 and 6. Furthermore, St. Augustine, here in Question 154, judges that this rock was the very one from which Moses by God's command drew water for the people, Exodus 17:6, so that the water from the rock at Sinai flowed for four miles to Raphidim, where the camp of the Hebrews was. Fernandius judges the same, vision 7, section 2, who also adds that the rock accompanied the Hebrews in the desert for forty years, either by itself, or through the flow of water. But these things are uncertain.
Allegorically, the rock is the solidity of the Church and of faith, without which no one can know God, of which Christ said to Peter, Matthew 16: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church." So Theodoret and St. Gregory, Book 35 of the Moralia, chapter 6. Gregory of Nyssa says: "Christ is a place and a way for those who run, a stone for the weak, a home for those who rest." Furthermore, St. Thomas, II II, Question 171, article 2, thinks that the application of the hand to the cleft signifies the manner in which prophetic light is communicated to the Prophets, namely, only as much as God wills. Hence the Prophets often say: The hand of the Lord came upon me; because prophetic light is not permanent, nor full, but passing, and tempered by the hand of God. This is mystical, as I said a little earlier in the exposition of Cajetan, who seems to have drawn it from St. Thomas. The Rabbis imagine that on the back of God His titles were written: "Ruler, Lord God, merciful," etc., which are listed in chapter 34, verse 6.
God therefore says: On Sinai there is a hollow rock, in whose cavity you can hide, O Moses, and which can be covered in front; I will therefore place you in it, and cover you with a cloud, until My glorious face passes, and then I will remove the cloud, so that you may see My back, that is, My rear; for you cannot see My face without immediately being struck dead by the splendors of My majesty flashing from it. That this was done is clear from chapter 34, verses 5 and 6.
I will protect you with My right hand, until I pass (verse 22). As if to say: With My right hand I will place a cloud, or some other opaque body, before the cavern in which you will be hiding, O Moses, and this so that you may not see the glory of My face as I pass before you, and die.
And I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back (verse 23). As if to say: When My face has passed, I will remove the cloud that covers you in the cavern, so that you may gaze upon My back. Hence it seems that this body in which God appeared to Moses was composed not by an angel, but by God alone, and adorned with so much light in front that it far surpassed the sun: but on the back this light was so tempered that Moses' sight could bear it, and he was wonderfully refreshed by it; yet the face of Moses was so sprinkled and suffused with this light that from it he began to radiate and be horned, as I will say in the following chapter.
I say that this luminous body was formed by God alone, not by an angel, because it is not likely that angels can by themselves immediately produce light, or accumulate so much light as to equal the sun.
Note: This luminous body so composed by God was entered and occupied by an angel, who moved it so that it passed before the cavern in which Moses was hiding.
Second, this angel was the same one who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, and went before them in the pillar of cloud, and who then presided over the people and the Synagogue, but now presides over the Church, namely St. Michael. That this is the literal sense of this passage, the whole sequence of the discourse speaks; likewise that in the following chapter, verses 5 and 6, the Lord, fulfilling what He here promises Moses, truly and corporeally passes before Moses, showing him His back. In a somewhat similar manner St. Pachomius saw the glory of the Lord with corporeal eyes, as his Life relates.
Allegorically, however, this sense is more important, and more intended by the Holy Spirit. Hence St. Augustine, Question 154, says that here there is a prophecy about Christ: for the face of the Lord signifies the divinity of Christ: the Jews did not see this when they crucified Christ, but after Christ passed through death and resurrection to the Father; then many of them saw His back, as it were, and believed.
Tropologically, Gregory of Nyssa says: In this life we cannot see God; yet he sees the back of God who stands upon the rock, that is Christ, and who always follows God with heart and mind, wherever He leads, according to the Psalmist's words: "My soul has clung to You, Your right hand has upheld me"; and Christ's words: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself." Again: "Come, follow Me." For to follow God with mind, will, and action, always and everywhere wherever He leads, is the very thing of seeing God.
Symbolically, the back of God represents the effects and creatures of God, from which alone Moses and we in this life are permitted to contemplate God. So Philo, Anastasius in the Questions of Sacred Scripture, Question 23; Irenaeus, Book IV, chapter 37; Hilary on Psalm 113. "From the perpetuity of creatures," says St. Augustine, "the eternal Creator is understood; from their greatness, the Almighty; from their order and arrangement, the Wise; from their governance, the Good."
Symbolically also, others think that here the vision of the humanity of Christ at the Transfiguration, on Mount Tabor, was prefigured and promised to Moses; for the humanity is the lower and posterior part of Christ, while the divinity is the prior and more excellent. So Tertullian, Book IV Against Marcion, chapter 22; Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2 On Theology; Origen here, Homily 12, and Homily 7 on Numbers: on which see St. Augustine, Book II On the Trinity, chapter 17, and Bernard, Sermon 61 on the Song of Songs.
Again, St. Ambrose on Psalm 43:24: Moses, he says, saw the back of Christ; he saw His splendor as man, he saw the glory of His passion, through which He restored the heavenly kingdom to us. Hence Fernandius concludes, vision 7, section 3, that Moses saw Christ scourged with whips and crowned with thorns, such as Pilate showed to the people, saying: "Behold the man"; likewise that he saw Him affixed to the cross. Hence he exclaimed, chapter 34, verse 6: "Merciful, gracious, of great mercy," etc. And that St. Peter alluded to this, Epistle I, chapter 1, verse 11, when he said that the Prophets foretold by the Spirit of God those things "which are the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that follow," where he also signifies, that is, as if to say: The sufferings of Christ are His posterior glories, which, namely, were shown to Moses on the glorious back of the Lord. But this is symbolic and mystical, not literal, and therefore uncertain and conjectural.
From what has been said, it is clear that in no way can it be gathered from this chapter that Moses saw the divine essence; for Moses neither asked for this, nor, if he asked, did he obtain it. For the Lord expressly answers him and says: "You cannot see My face"; and this is the opinion of nearly all the other Fathers, whom L. Molina, Valentia, and others cite, I Part, Question 12.