Numbers 14:11-17

The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me disrespectfully and reject Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the [miraculous] signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence (plague) and dispossess them, and will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up these people from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people [of Israel], that You, LORD, are seen face to face, while Your cloud stands over them; and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations (Gentiles) that have heard of Your fame will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring these people into the land which He promised to give them, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ But now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, saying