Numbers 14:13–23

13 aBut Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst,

14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for aYou, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 “Now if You slay this people as one man, athen the nations who have heard of Your fame will 1say,

16 ‘Because the Lord acould not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

17 “But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have 1declared,

18 ‘aThe Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but bHe will by no means clear the guilty, cvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children 1to the third and the fourth generations.’

19 “aPardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

The Lord Pardons and Rebukes

20 So the Lord said, “aI have pardoned them according to your word;

21 but indeed, aas I live, 1ball the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

22 “Surely aall the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet bhave put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,

23 ashall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.