Numbers 14:11–20

Moses Pleads for the People

^11aThe 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.”

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

¹⁴and 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

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