Exodus 33:3 (DBY)

Passage

into a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee on the way.

Nearby Context

Exodus 33:1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, into the land that I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it,

Exodus 33:2 (and I will send an angel before thee, and dispossess the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,)

Exodus 33:3 into a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee on the way.

Exodus 33:4 And when the people heard this evil word, they mourned; and no man put on his ornaments.

Exodus 33:5 Now Jehovah had said to Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: in one moment I will come up into the midst of thee and will consume thee. And now put off thine ornaments from thee, and I will know what I will do unto thee.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "land", "flowing", "milk", "honey", "midst", "thee", "thou", and "stiff-necked". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "land" and "flowing", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "and I will send an angel before..." into verse 4's "And when the people heard this evil...", so "land" and "flowing" belong inside that flow. In Exodus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "land" and "flowing" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.