¹⁰ Still the entire community threatened to stone them to death. The Glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites over the Tent of Meeting. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? ¹² I will strike them with a plague and disown them. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”

Moses Intercedes for Israel

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear it, since by your own power you brought these people up from the midst of the Egyptians. ¹⁴ They will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have heard that you, the Lord, are in the midst of this people. You, the Lord, are seen face-to-face.^[a] Your cloud stands over them. You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ If you killed these people, leaving no one, then the nations which have heard about your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring these people into the land which he swore to them, he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷ Now please let the power of the Lord be great, just as you have said, ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving guilt and rebellion. He certainly does not leave the guilty unpunished, following up on the guilt of the fathers with the children unto the third and the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹ According to your great mercy, please pardon the guilt of these people, just as you have forgiven these people from Egypt until now.”