12 I will strike them down with a plaguef and destroy them, but I will make you into a nationg greater and stronger than they.”h

13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.i 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heardj that you, Lord, are with these peoplek and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,l that your cloud stays over them,m and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.n 15 If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,o so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’p

17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.q Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’r 19 In accordance with your great love, forgives the sin of these people,t just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”u

20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them,v as you asked.