A reading from the book of Exodus.

The Lord said to Moses, depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt,

to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, to your offspring, I will give it.

I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the

hittites, the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey,

but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments,

for the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are a stiff-necked people.

If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.

So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.

Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves

of their ornaments from Mount Horib onward. Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the

camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting, and everyone who sought the Lord

would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent,

all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had

gone in to the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the

entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of

cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his

tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses

turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of none, a young man, would not depart

from the tent. Moses said to the Lord,

See, you say to me bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will sin with me.

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