⁹ Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham,^(A) God of my father Isaac,^(B) Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’^{(C) 10} I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness^(D) you have shown your servant. I had only my staff^(E) when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.^{(F) 11} Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid^(G) he will come and attack me,^(H) and also the mothers with their children.^{(I) 12} But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand^(J) of the sea, which cannot be counted.^(K)’”

¹¹ But Moses sought the favor^(A) of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?^{(B) 12} Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’?^(C) Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster^(D) on your people. ¹³ Remember^(E) your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self:^(F) ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars^(G) in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land^(H) I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’”

¹³ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways^(A) so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”^(B)

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.^{(A) 14} And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard^(B) that you, Lord, are with these people^(C) and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,^(D) that your cloud stays over them,^(E) and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.^{(F) 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,^(G) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^(H)

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.^(I) Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’^(J)

² and rose up against Moses.^(A) With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.^(B)