¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning^(A) them. Then the glory of the Lord^(B) appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?^(C) How long will they refuse to believe in me,^(D) in spite of all the signs^(E) I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague^(F) and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation^(G) 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 heard^(J) that you, Lord, are with these people^(K) 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, forgive^(S) the sin of these people,^(T) just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”^(U)