Bible Strands
Exodus 33:21
The LORD continued, “There is a place near Me where you are to stand upon a rock,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Moses immediately after declaring that no one can see His face and live, following Moses’ request to perceive His glory.
The words — מָקוֹם (ma.kom) translates literally as a place or location, and נִצַּבְתָּ (ni.tzav.ta) means you will stand or take your position.
The thread — The motif of standing before God appears in Deuteronomy 5:31, where Moses is told to stand with Yahweh to receive the law, and Exodus 33:22 expands the location into a cleft of the rock for divine protection.
Why it lands — The text directs the reader to accept a divinely appointed boundary for encounter, requiring obedience to stand exactly where God places rather than demanding proximity on human terms.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
Cross-references
- Zechariah 3:7 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘If you walk in My ways and keep My instructions, then you will govern My house and will also have charge of My courts; and I will give you a place among these who are standing here.
- Deuteronomy 5:31 But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.”
- Joshua 20:4 When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before its elders, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them.
- Isaiah 56:5 I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
- Luke 15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus.