1. The Lord said to Moses:You led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Now get ready to lead them to the land I promised their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2-3. It is a land rich with milk and honey, and I will send an angel to force out those people who live there—the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. I would go with my people, but they are so rebellious that I would destroy them before they get there.
4-5. Even before the Lord said these harsh things, he had told Moses, “These people really are rebellious, and I would kill them at once, if I went with them. But tell them to take off their jewellery, then I'll decide what to do with them.” So the people started mourning,
6. and after leaving Mount Sinai, they stopped wearing jewellery.
7. Moses used to set up a tent far from camp. He called it the “meeting tent”, and whoever needed some message from the Lord would go there.
8. Each time Moses went out to the tent, everyone would stand at the entrance to their own tents and watch him enter.
9-11. Then they would bow down because a thick cloud would come down in front of the tent, and the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, just like a friend. Afterwards, Moses would return to camp, but his young assistant Joshua would stay at the tent.