Numbers 14:11-20

111The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will 2they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? 12I will smite them with 34pestilence and dispossess them, and I 5will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

136But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, 14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for 7You, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while 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 slay this people as one man, 8then the nations who have heard of Your fame will 9say, 16‘Because the Lord 10could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have 11declared, 18‘12The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but 13He will by no means clear the guilty, 14visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children 15to the third and the fourth generations.’ 1916Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

20So the Lord said, “17I have pardoned them according to your word;