Numbers 14:10b-24
Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the
Israelites. 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? I will strike them with
pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater
and mightier than they."
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, 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. Now if you kill this people all
at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, '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.' And now,
therefore, let the power of the LORD be great in the way that you promised
when you spoke, saying,
'The LORD is slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
to the third and the fourth generation.'
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."
Then the LORD said, "I do forgive, just as you have asked; nevertheless —
as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the
LORD — none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did
in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and
have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their
ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant
Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me
wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his
descendants shall possess it.
