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I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."
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And Moses said to the Lord: "Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them,
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and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
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Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying,
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'Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.'
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And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying,
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'The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.'
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Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."
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Then the Lord said: "I have pardoned, according to your word;
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but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord--
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because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
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they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
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But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.
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Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea."
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And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
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"How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
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Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
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The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.
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Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
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But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
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But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.