Moses Intercedes for Israel

Moses argues that Egypt and the nations of the land will hear if the LORD destroys Israel in the wilderness. They will read it not as justice but as failure to complete what he began.

B¹³ut Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them. ¹⁴And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, ¹⁶‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

Moses asks that the Lord’s power be shown through the mercy he has already declared: slow anger, abundant covenant love, real forgiveness, and real judgment. On that ground he asks pardon for this people again.

¹⁷So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared: ¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’ ¹⁹Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”