Numbers 14:13-23

¹³And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people out from among them;

¹⁴And they will give the news to the people of this land: they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵Now if you put to death all this people as one man, then the nations who have had word of your glory will say,

¹⁶Because the Lord was not able to take this people into the land which he made an oath to give them, he sent destruction on them in the waste land.

¹⁷So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said:

¹⁸The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

¹⁹May the sin of this people have forgiveness, in the measure of your great mercy, as you have had mercy on them from Egypt up till now.

²⁰And the Lord said, I have had mercy, as you say:

²¹But truly, as I am living, and as all the earth will be full of the glory of the Lord;

²²Because all these men, having seen my glory and the signs which I have done in Egypt and in the waste land, still have put me to the test ten times, and have not given ear to my voice;

²³They will not see the land about which I made an oath to their fathers; not one of these by whom I have not been honoured will see it.