Numbers 14:10-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁰ But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.^{(A) 11} And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?^{(B) 12} I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”^(C)

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹³ But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them,^{(D) 14} and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.^{(E) 15} Now if you kill this people as one, then the nations who have heard about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^{(F) 17} And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,

¹⁹ “Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”^(H)