YHWH Speaks to Moses Face to Face—But Does Moses Get to Know YHWH?

After the sin of the golden calf, Moses moves his tent outside the camp,^[1] and YHWH speaks with him there:

^{שׁמות לג:ט} וְהָיָה כְּבֹא מֹשֶׁה הָאֹהֱלָה יֵרֵד עַמּוּד הֶעָנָן וְעָמַד פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל וְדִבֶּר עִם מֹשֶׁה.

^{Exod 33:9} And it was that when Moses came to the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and speak with Moses.^[2]

Two verses later YHWH communicates with Moses “face to face”:

^{שׁמות לג:יא} וְדִבֶּר יְ־הוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה פָּנִים אֶל פָּנִים כַּאֲשֶׁר יְדַבֵּר אִישׁ אֶל רֵעֵהוּ....

^{Exod 33:11} YHWH spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.....^[3]

What is the relationship between these two verses? Does YHWH speak to Moses face to face, or hidden within a cloud? The cloud elsewhere is a figure for the divine “glory,” in which YHWH conceals himself. Does Moses experience a voice from within the cloud speaking to him, as it were, face to face? The mist stands for the mystery.

Beyond Anthropomorphism or Metaphor

There are two main approaches to anthropomorphic images of the deity in the Bible. One is that the ancient Israelites saw YHWH as a corporeal being, whose limbs actually constitute the divine body.^[4] The other approach, famously associated with Maimonides, is that these descriptions are metaphors, which denote the power, presence, prescience, and other attributes of the incorporeal YHWH.^[5] I propose a multi-leveled concept of deity, which will mediate between the two approaches. I will take as my example one of the most profound and puzzling dialogues in the Bible, that between Moses and YHWH in Exodus 33:12–23.

The cognitive theorists have shown that we think “with” metaphor, that the capacity to see analogies is foundational to the construction of our world.^[6] Moreover, metaphors bring together vast networks of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations, all imbued with symbolic significance. We think with our bodies, on the basis of intimate corporeal experiences. Just as we look at a face, anxiously or lovingly, to read what a person feels, so the face of God evokes an infinite play of expression. It is a measure of otherness and similarity.

But is YHWH’s face just a metaphor? YHWH later cautions Moses:

^{שׁמות לג:כ} וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת פָּנָי כִּי לֹא יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם וָחָי.

^{Exod 33:20} He said, “You cannot see My face, for no human can see Me and live.”

Clearly, a face that can kill is more than a metaphorical face. Similarly, when YHWH says פני ילכו , “My face will go” (v. 14) it must refer to something that goes before the people. The line between literal and metaphorical becomes blurred. So what does it mean that YHWH speaks to Moses face to face?

The Hebrew word for “face,” פנים (panim), is plural. Avivah Zornberg writes:

Panim literally means “faces, facets,” in the plural. A face, in Hebrew, has plural implications, a shifting mosaic of facets.^[7]

The face is both exterior, the surface one presents to the world, and interior. Panim may mean “presence” or “front” or “within.”^[8]

YHWH crosses the gap between the divine and the human. The image, “face to face,” suggests an extraordinary exposure to each other, on equal terms, “as a man speaks with his friend.” At the same time, it intimates opposition, the dialogue, at the deepest level, that constitutes their lives. In each other’s faces, Moses and YHWH see into each other, imagine their interiority. For the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, the face signifies infinite difference, but also responsibility; we respond to the other person, and to God, in their uniqueness.^[9]

Moses Pleads with YHWH to Know Him

The dialogue that follows concerns the future of the divine-human relationship, the possibility of history, and the question of knowledge. In his opening plea, Moses uses the word for “know” (ידע; shown in bold) four times, each time with a different grammatical construction and with different possible meanings:

‏^{שׁמות לג:יב} וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל יְ־הוָה רְאֵה אַתָּה אֹמֵר אֵלַי הַעַל אֶת הָעָם הַזֶּה וְאַתָּה לֹא הוֹדַעְתַּנִי אֵת אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁלַח עִמִּי וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ יְדַעְתִּיךָ בְשֵׁם וְגַם מָצָאתָ חֵן בְּעֵינָי. ^לג:יג וְעַתָּה אִם נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ הוֹדִעֵנִי נָא אֶת דְּרָכֶךָ וְאֵדָעֲךָ לְמַעַן אֶמְצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ וּרְאֵה כִּי עַמְּךָ הַגּוֹי הַזֶּה.

^{Exod 33:12} And Moses said to YHWH. “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but You have not let me know who You will send with me; and You have said, ‘I have known you by name,’ and also ‘you have found favour in My eyes.’ ^33:13 And now, if indeed I have found favour in Your eyes, let me know, please, Your ways, that I may know You, in order that I might find favour in Your eyes—and see, this nation is Your people.

Moses wants to know YHWH’s ways, the metaphor suggesting that the paths lead back to YHWH’s very self. YHWH and Moses may speak face to face, but YHWH is still unknown to Moses. Perhaps there are gradations of knowledge: through learning God’s ways one may come to a knowledge of God Himself. Friendship is thus a process, whereby one comes to learn about the other, even about God, but the process is never complete.

YHWH responds that His face “will go”:

^{שׁמות לג:יד} וַיֹּאמַר פָּנַי יֵלֵכוּ וַהֲנִחֹתִי לָךְ.

^{Exod 33:14} And He said, “My face will go, and I will give your rest.”

We are left to wonder why Moses immediately replies, “If Your face does not go...”:

^{שׁמות לג:טו} וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אִם אֵין פָּנֶיךָ הֹלְכִים אַל תַּעֲלֵנוּ מִזֶּה.

^{Exod 33:15} And he said to him, “If Your face does not go, do not bring us up from here.

It is also unclear what the relation of YHWH’s face here is to YHWH speaking “face to face” with Moses. Is the face of YHWH identical with YHWH, or different from Him? Throughout the dialogue, Moses and YHWH seem to be playing with different meanings of the same word. As a token of their intimacy, whose nature and depth is the very ground of their discussion, what is unspoken is as important as what is spoken.

Moses’s fifth use of ידע is outward looking—referring to how others will know that YHWH favors him:

^{שׁמות לג:טז} וּבַמֶּה יִוָּדַע אֵפוֹא כִּי מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ אֲנִי וְעַמֶּךָ הֲלוֹא בְּלֶכְתְּךָ עִמָּנוּ וְנִפְלֵינוּ אֲנִי וְעַמְּךָ מִכָּל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה.

^{Exod 33:16} And how shall it be known, where, that I have found favour in Your eyes, I and Your people, if not in Your going with us, and we shall be distinguished, I and Your people, from every people which is on the face of the earth.”

YHWH immediately agrees to grant Moses’s request:

‏^{שׁמות לג:יז} וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה גַּם אֶת הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ אֶעֱשֶׂה כִּי מָצָאתָ חֵן בְּעֵינַי וָאֵדָעֲךָ בְּשֵׁם.

^{Exod 33:17} And YHWH said to Moses, “Also this thing that you have said I will do, because you have found favour in My eyes, and I have known you by name.”

Yet Moses’s puzzling response is another plea, this time to see YHWH’s glory:

^{שׁמות לג:יח} וַיֹּאמַר הַרְאֵנִי נָא אֶת כְּבֹדֶךָ.

^{Exod 33:18} And he said, “Show me, please, Your glory.”

Sight is a frequent metaphor for knowledge, in Hebrew as in many languages.^[10] But they are also opposites. Knowledge is a process, perhaps taking a lifetime; seeing is an immediate experience. Moses’s request to see YHWH’s “glory” (כבוד) may thus retract his previous wish to “know” YHWH, especially if the glory represents an outward, visible aspect of YHWH. Alternately, it may be a supplement to Moses’s desire, or a sidestep. In many mystical traditions, the transgressive vision of God is the ultimate goal. Aesthetic pleasure complements knowledge of God’s ways, or substitutes for it.

YHWH’s Three Non-Responsive Replies

YHWH then delivers three utterances, but none of them answer Moses’s request. They represent three stages in divine thought, each of which responds to the other. His first response—that He “will call in the name of YHWH” before Moses—transfers the question of knowledge of YHWH from vision to voice:

^{שׁמות לג:יט} וַיֹּאמֶר אֲנִי אַעֲבִיר כָּל טוּבִי עַל פָּנֶיךָ וְקָרָאתִי בְשֵׁם יְ־הוָה לְפָנֶיךָ וְחַנֹּתִי אֶת אֲשֶׁר אָחֹן וְרִחַמְתִּי אֶת אֲשֶׁר אֲרַחֵם.

^{Exod 33:19} And He said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass over your face, and I will call in the name of YHWH before you, and I will be merciful to the one to whom I will show mercy, and I will be compassionate to the one for whom I have compassion.”

This constitutes a different tack, or an evasion, from Moses’s request to see YHWH’s glory. The voice may represent a more profound aspect of divinity, an interiority, as opposed to appearance.^[11] Moses may listen to the rhythms and intonations of YHWH’s voice, the interweaving of thought, breath, and articulation in all language.

As Moses listens intently trying to make sense of it all, YHWH adds:

^{שׁמות לג:כ} וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת פָּנָי כִּי לֹא יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם וָחָי.

^{Exod 33:20} And He said, “You cannot see My face, for no human can see Me and live.”

We, and more importantly Moses, can imagine that YHWH is thinking out loud. This is a true induction into YHWH’s “ways.” But YHWH is also hedging, carefully delimiting Moses’s access to the divine mystery. He both wants to be known, and to protect Moses from the perils of that knowledge.

In the end YHWH comes up with a compromise solution, allowing Moses to see His back:

^{שׁמות לג:כא} וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הוָה הִנֵּה מָקוֹם אִתִּי וְנִצַּבְתָּ עַל הַצּוּר. ^לג:כב וְהָיָה בַּעֲבֹר כְּבֹדִי וְשַׂמְתִּיךָ בְּנִקְרַת הַצּוּר וְשַׂכֹּתִי כַפִּי עָלֶיךָ עַד עָבְרִי. ^לג:כג וַהֲסִרֹתִי אֶת כַּפִּי וְרָאִיתָ אֶת אֲחֹרָי וּפָנַי לֹא יֵרָאוּ.

^{Exod 33:21} And YHWH said, “Behold there is a place with Me, and you shall stand on the rock. ^33:22 And it shall be, that when My glory passes over, I will put you in a fissure of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand, until I pass over. ^33:23 And I will remove My hand, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.

The back clearly contrasts with the front, and the face, in that it can be seen. It is perhaps not quite equivalent to seeing YHWH Himself, since in the previous verse it says, “No human can see Me and live.”

The back has given rise to many allegorical explanations, such as that it refers to YHWH’s attributes (as specified in Exod 34:6–7), or to His past actions, since the word for “back” (אחור) can also signify the past.[12] We need, however, to focus on the physicality of the image, compounded by the sensation of being covered by YHWH’s hand.

Glory, Goodness, Face, and Name

The fact that YHWH uses three different terms to describe Himself suggests subtle distinctions. The “glory” (כבוד; v. 22) may be different from the “face” (פנים; v. 20), or equivalent to it. The “goodness” (טוב; v. 19) may in turn parallel “glory” and hence “face.”

Moreover, the same word may be used in different senses. The “glory” has already been seen, not only by Moses, but by the whole people, for example in the story of the manna (Exod 16:7, 10), and it will be seen again (e.g., 40:34–35). Is the glory which Moses wishes to see different from that which has been publicly revealed, so that we have glory within glory? Similarly, when YHWH causes His “goodness” to pass over, is this in contradistinction to a “badness”?^[13] Is it one part of YHWH, corresponding to the luminescence of the glory, which leaves another part undisclosed?^[14] We seem to be delving further and further in a maze in which language, always inadequate, obfuscates as much as it communicates.

YHWH also introduces another term: “name”—וקראתי בשם י־הוה לפניך, “and I will call in the name of YHWH before you” (v. 19)—whose relationship to “glory,” “face,” and “goodness” we do not know. It clearly corresponds to YHWH’s knowing Moses’s name (ידעתיך בשם, “I have known you by name,” in v. 12 and the similar ואדעך בשם in v. 17). If YHWH knows Moses’s name, it is clearly more than just an appellation. It implies an intimate recognition. The name is a symbol for the self, and thus the totality of Moses’s life experiences. YHWH’s calling Himself by name evokes a liturgical context, and suggests His entire significance for Himself, and for Israel. This is how He speaks of Himself.

Knowing YHWH

No doubt ancient Israelites did think of YHWH as a person, with physical features, such as arms and legs, like other deities. They also thought of YHWH as non-corporeal, insisting that that YHWH is not “flesh” and humans are (e.g. Gen 6:3, Isa 40:5–8). But they also thought of YHWH as a lot more. YHWH was the repository, the symbol, of all Israel’s values, its sense of holiness and mission. Again and again, YHWH is the model of all that Israel should be, loving the stranger, being compassionate, and so forth. Beyond that, YHWH represented all the forces of life and death. As the creator and destroyer, YHWH was the basis of human existence.

Metaphor extrapolates: We go from one image to another, each adding its own level of implication. That is the magic, and mystery, of human thought. The dialogue between Moses and YHWH is the most complex and profound in the Bible. The writer, through his personae of Moses and YHWH, explores the limits of language and the possibility of knowledge of God. In this task metaphor is our only tool.