The Hebrew Bible records Moses making the most audacious request in Scripture: "Show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). Targum Onkelos renders the response with his most careful theological language: "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live" (Exodus 33:20).
But first, the crisis. God tells Moses to leave Sinai and head for the Promised Land, but adds a devastating qualifier: "I will not go up among you" (Exodus 33:3). Onkelos renders this as "My Shechinah will not go up among you." It is not God who is absent—God is everywhere. But the concentrated, palpable divine Presence that had accompanied Israel through the wilderness will be withdrawn. The people mourn. They remove their ornaments—the crowns they received at Sinai.
Moses sets up the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. When he enters, the Pillar of Cloud descends and God speaks to him "face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11). Onkelos renders this as "word to word"—not face-to-face in a physical sense, but a direct, unmediated verbal communication. Intimacy without anthropomorphism.
Then Moses's great request. "Let me know Your way" (Exodus 33:13)—Onkelos adds: "the way of Your goodness." Moses is not asking for philosophical knowledge of God's nature. He is asking to understand God's kindness—how divine mercy operates in the world. God responds: "My Presence will go, and I will accede to your request" (Exodus 33:14). Onkelos: "My Shechinah will go." The crisis is resolved. The Divine Presence will return. Moses's prayer succeeds where the people's idolatry failed—not through gold and fire, but through words spoken friend to friend.