Numbers 14:11–16

Moses Pleads for the People

11 aThe Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will bthey not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?

12 “I will smite them with 1apestilence and dispossess them, and I bwill make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

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.’