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Exodus 33:12

And Moses said to the Lord; Thou commandest me to lead forth this people: and thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, especially whereas thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in my sight.

Challoner: I know thee by nameIn the language of the scriptures, God is said to know such as he approves and loves: and to know by name, those whom he favours in a most singular manner, as he did his servant Moses.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Dixit autem Moyses ad Dominum : Præcipis ut educam populum istum : et non indicas mihi quem missurus es mecum, præsertim cum dixeris : Novi te ex nomine, et invenisti gratiam coram me.
Septuagint (Swete): Καὶ εἶπεν Μωυσῆς πρὸς Κύριον Ἰδοὺ σύ μοι λέγεις Ἀνάγαγε τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον· σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἐδήλωσάς μοι ὃν συναποστελεῖς μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ· σὺ δέ μοι εἶπας Οἶδά σε παρὰ πάντας, καὶ χάριν ἔχεις παρ᾽ ἐμοί.
Hebrew (WLC): וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל יְהוָ֗ה רְ֠אֵה אַתָּ֞ה אֹמֵ֤ר אֵלַי֙ הַ֚עַל אֶת הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה וְאַתָּה֙ לֹ֣א הֽוֹדַעְתַּ֔נִי אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁלַ֖ח עִמִּ֑י וְאַתָּ֤ה אָמַ֨רְתָּ֙ יְדַעְתִּ֣יךָֽ בְשֵׁ֔ם וְגַם מָצָ֥אתָ חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינָֽי

Haydock's commentary

To the Lord. This conversation probably took place on Mount Horeb, (ver. 22,) after God had threatened that he would not go up with the people, chap. xxxii. 34. And here (ver. 3,) Moses, considering that God would thus withdraw his special providence from his people, begins to expostulate with him; and first, having mentioned with gratitude, the repeated kindnesses of God towards himself, he begs to be informed what angel shall accompany him, and then proceeds to beg that God would still shew his wonted favour to the penitent Hebrews, and conduct them himself, as he had done before the transgression. We do not read before, that God said to Moses, I know thee by name; (St. Augustine, q. 193,) but he had used that expression in some conversation with him, as he did afterwards, ver. 17. (Haydock)

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

St Augustine On the Holy Trinity, In What Manner Moses Saw God

28. Add, too, that which the Lord afterward said to Moses, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see my face, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shall stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee into a watch-tower of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.”

St Gregory of Nyssa On the Making of Man, What was the life in Paradise, and what was the forbidden tree?

1. What then is that which includes the knowledge of good and evil blended together, and is decked with the pleasures of sense? I think I am not aiming wide of the mark in employing, as a starting-point for my speculation, the sense of “knowable.” It is not, I think, “science” which the Scripture here means by “knowledge”; but I find a certain distinction, according to Scriptural use, between “knowledge” and “discernment”: for to “dis cern” skilfully the good from the evil, the Apostle says is a mark of a more perfect condition and of “exercised senses,” for which reason also he bids us “prove all things,” and says that “discernment” belongs to the spiritual man: but “knowledge” is not always to be understood of skill and acquaintance with anything, but of the disposition towards what is agreeable, as “the Lord knoweth them that are His”; and He says to Moses, “I knew thee above all”; wh …