And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.
And till Moses had done speaking ... he put a veil on his face, х macweh (H4533)] - a face covering, a veil worn in Arabia, different from х hatsaa`iyp (H6809)] the word used in the Pentateuch for this article of attire as worn by women (Genesis 24:65; Genesis 38:14), and from the mitpachath employed in the later books (Ruth 3:15; Isaiah 3:22), or the radid (Song of Solomon 5:7). That veil was with the greatest propriety removed when speaking with the Lord-for everyone appears unveiled to the eye of omniscience; but it was resumed on returning to the people: for the effect of it was to obscure his features rather than to conceal them-to diminish the dazzling brightness of the supernatural splendour, rather than to hide it.
The Septuagint has: epeidee katepause laloon pros autous, when he had done speaking to the people. The Vulgate follows that version; and Stanley, in conformity with both, says, that Moses put on the veil, 'not during, but after, the conversation with the people, in order to hide, not the splendour, but the vanishing away of the splendour, and wore it until the moment of his return to the Divine Presence, in order to re-kindle the light there. With this reading agrees the obvious meaning of the Hebrew words; and it is this rendering of the sense which is followed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:13-14 ' ('Lectures on Jewish Church,' p. 153, note). Such a rendering, however, is not supported by the grammatical construction of the Hebrew context, and it is obviously contrary to the tenor of the apostle's argument.