³ Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey.^(A) But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked^(B) people and I might destroy^(C) you on the way.”

⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people.^(A) If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy^(B) you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’”

⁹ “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor^(A) in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us.^(B) Although this is a stiff-necked^(C) people, forgive our wickedness and our sin,^(D) and take us as your inheritance.”^(E)

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?^(A) How long will they refuse to believe in me,^(B) in spite of all the signs^(C) I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague^(D) and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation^(E) greater and stronger than they.”^(F)

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.^{(G) 14} And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard^(H) that you, Lord, are with these people^(I) and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,^(J) that your cloud stays over them,^(K) and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.^{(L) 15} If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,^(M) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^(N)

¹⁷ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.^(O) Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’^{(P) 19} In accordance with your great love, forgive^(Q) the sin of these people,^(R) just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”^(S)

²⁰ The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them,^(T) as you asked.