What is the context?
God tells Moses to prepare two new stone tablets like the ones he broke. This is an important answer to the crisis after the calf: God is making a way for the covenant testimony to be restored. Moses goes up alone as commanded, carrying the tablets, and the LORD descends in the cloud.
The proclamation answers Moses’ request to see God’s glory. God declares His name and describes what He is like: compassionate, gracious, patient, faithful, and ready to forgive. This is not an abstract description detached from events. Israel has just sinned grievously, and Moses is seeking forgiveness and God’s continuing presence.
The loving devotion named here is חֶסֶד, chesed (KHEH-sed), a word for kindness or lovingkindness. Brown–Driver–Briggs includes God’s care, redemption, and covenant faithfulness among its uses, and specifically lists its pairing with faithfulness in this verse. The word helps us hear the depth of God’s goodness toward people who need mercy.
The same proclamation says that God does not leave the guilty unpunished and warns of judgment reaching across generations. His forgiveness is not indifference to evil. That warning also needs to be read alongside Ezekiel 18:19–23, where a child who turns from a parent’s wrongdoing is not condemned for that parent’s guilt. Scripture does not treat a family’s history as a reason that repentance and mercy are impossible.
Moses immediately bows down and worships. His next prayer includes himself with the people: he asks pardon for their iniquity and sin, asks God to go with them, and asks that He take them as His inheritance. God’s revealed character becomes the basis of his appeal.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley and Calvin both read the proclamation as holding God’s abundant mercy together with His holiness and justice. They understand Moses’ response as humble reverence and renewed dependence on the God who has made Himself known.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
This proclamation continues to shape how God’s people approach Him. In Numbers 14:17–24, Moses appeals to these same words when Israel rebels again. God grants pardon while still announcing serious consequences. The name proclaimed on Sinai teaches the people whom they are asking for mercy; it does not become a formula that makes their choices unimportant.
The New Testament brings forgiveness and justice together in Christ. Romans 3:21–26 describes God freely justifying those who believe through Jesus’ redemption, while demonstrating His own righteousness. God’s purpose is not to choose between being merciful and being just. Through His Son, He deals with sin and gives grace to sinners.
John 1:14–18 also describes the Word’s glory in terms of grace and truth, and says that the Son makes God known. This is a meaningful connection with Moses’ encounter: the character God proclaims here is revealed to us through Jesus, who brings us the fullness of grace and truth.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.