12. I’ll strike them down with a plague and disown them. Then I’ll make you into a great nation, stronger than they."
13. Moses said to the Lord, "The Egyptians will hear, for with your power you brought these people up from among them.
14. They’ll tell the inhabitants of this land. They’ve heard that you, Lord, are with this people. You, Lord, appear to them face-to-face. Your cloud stands over them. You go before them in a column of cloud by day and in a column of lightning by night.
15. If you kill these people, every last one of them, the nations who heard about you will say,
16. ‘The Lord wasn’t able to bring these people to the land that he solemnly promised to give them. So he slaughtered them in the desert.’
17. Now let my master’s power be as great as you declared when you said,
18. ‘The Lord is very patient and absolutely loyal, forgiving wrongs and disloyalty. Yet he doesn’t forgo all punishment, disciplining the grandchildren and great-grandchildren for their ancestors’ wrongs.’
19. Please forgive the wrongs of these people because of your absolute loyalty, just as you’ve forgiven these people from their time in Egypt until now."
20. Then the Lord said, "I will forgive as you requested.
21. But as I live and as the Lord’s glory fills the entire earth,
22. none of the men who saw my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and in the desert, but tested me these ten times and haven’t listened to my voice,
23. will see the land I promised to their ancestors. All who disrespected me won’t see it.
24. But I’ll bring my servant Caleb into the land that he explored, and his descendants will possess it because he has a different spirit, and he has remained true to me.
25. Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley, tomorrow turn and march into the desert by the route of the Reed Sea."
26. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: