What Does Exodus 33:18 Mean in the King James?
And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Here “glory” is weight: the request is to encounter the substance of God’s presence, which the next verse names through goodness and the LORD’s name.
THE MEANING
Your desire to perceive God meets a presence with substance: glory carries the weight of who God is. The next verse unfolds that disclosure as goodness passing before the seeker and the LORD’s name proclaimed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that God’s glory is only visual brilliance or power without character; the following line binds it to goodness and the proclaimed name.
THE ROOT
כְּבֹדֶךָ
kevodekha
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy; to carry weight.
“glory” in this verse is kevodekha. The request is for God’s kavod, weight, also the source of words for honor: what has weight commands regard. The next verse discloses that weight as goodness and the proclaimed name, so the word holds more than visible brightness: it points to God’s substantial presence and character.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This is the root’s concrete sense, revealing the physical image beneath “glory”: something with weight and substance.
kibbēd: To honor or treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
The shared root links weight with honor: God’s glory carries a presence worthy of regard.
THE PATTERN
God’s glory carries the weight of God’s presence, disclosed through what fills and reveals.
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.Moses asks to see the LORD’s kavod; the psalm names the heavens as declaring that same glory. The shared word widens the request: God’s weight is disclosed in the created expanse as well as in direct encounter.
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