New King James Version
Exodus 33:3
3Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Exodus 33:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.
- New International Version (NIV)Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
- English Standard Version (ESV)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."
- New Living Translation (NLT)Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey. But I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn and rebellious people. If I did, I would surely destroy you along the way.”
Context of Exodus 33:3
1Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ 2And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 4And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ”
Read all of Exodus 33Exodus 33:3 word by word
אֶל־אֶ֛רֶץ זָבַ֥ת חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ כִּי֩ לֹ֨א אֶֽעֱלֶ֜ה בְּקִרְבְּךָ֗ כִּ֤י עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ אַ֔תָּה פֶּן־אֲכֶלְךָ֖ בַּדָּֽרֶךְ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- Unto a landאֶ֫רֶץ'erets · land: country/planetH776
- flowingזוּבzûb · to flow: flowingH2100
- with milkחָלָבchâlâb · milkH2461
- and honeyדְּבַשׁdebash · honeyH1706
- for I will not go upעָלָה‛âlâh · to ascend: riseH5927
- in the midstקֶ֫רֶבqereb · entrails: amongH7130
- a stiffneckedעֹ֫רֶף‛ôreph · neckH6203
- a stiffneckedקָשֶׁהqâsheh · severeH7186
- peopleעַם‛am · peopleH5971
- lest I consumeכָּלָהkâlâh · to end: destroyH3615
- thee in the wayדֶּ֫רֶךְderek · way: journeyH1870
Cross-references for Exodus 33:3
- Exodus 3:8So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
- Exodus 13:5And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
- Leviticus 20:24But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
- Numbers 13:27Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
- Numbers 14:8If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’
- Numbers 16:13Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you should keep acting like a prince over us?
- Joshua 5:6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
- Jeremiah 11:5that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day.” ’ ” And I answered and said, “So be it, Lord.”
- Exodus 33:15Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
- Exodus 32:10Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
- Numbers 14:12I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
- Deuteronomy 32:26I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
- 1 Samuel 2:30Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
- Jeremiah 18:7The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
- Ezekiel 3:18When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.
- Ezekiel 33:13When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.
Commentaries on Exodus 33:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3I will not go up in the midst of thee - Consequently, the angel here promised to be their guide was not that angel in whom Jehovah's name was: and so the people understood it; hence the mourning which is afterwards mentioned.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3land flowing with milk and honey: Canaan was not as fertile as the Nile Valley in Egypt, but it was much more productive than the Sinai desert. stiff-necked people: They did not keep their promises. I might destroy you: As God of the covenant, the Lord would enforce the covenant terms that required the destruction of those who violated it (see study note on 23:20–33; also see 24:7–8 and study notes).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. I will not go up ... lest I consume thee--Here the Lord is represented as determined to do what He afterwards did not. (See on Ex 32:7).Read the comment
Topics related to Exodus 33:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Exodus 33
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries