Numbers 14:11-20

English Standard Version

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people ^(A)despise me? And how long will they not ^(B)believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? ¹²I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I ^(C)will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹³But ^(D)Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, ¹⁴and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. ^(E)They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and ^(F)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. ¹⁵Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶‘It is because the Lord ^(G)was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ¹⁸^(H)‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, ^(I)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹Please ^(J)pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just ^(K)as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”