Exodus 32:12

“So now, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. See also, that this nation is Your people.”

Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have done in their midst?

But Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your power You brought up this people from their midst,

“Now if You put this people to death as one man, then the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,

“Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.”

“And I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘O Lord Yahweh, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

lest the land from which You brought us say, “Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”

“Now nothing from that which is devoted to destruction shall cling to your hand, in order that Yahweh may turn from His burning anger and grant compassion to you and show compassion to you and make you multiply, just as He has sworn to your fathers,

“And the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?”

“For Yahweh will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because Yahweh has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.

“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not established My words.” And Samuel became angry and cried out to Yahweh all night.

(for they are Your people and Your inheritance which You have brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace),

You withdrew all Your fury; You turned back from Your burning anger.

Return, O Yahweh; how long will it be? And be sorry for Your slaves.

Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, To turn away His wrath from eradicating them.

Then Yahweh said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My soul would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!

“Therefore thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh.’”

“But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, Weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, “Pity Your people, O Yahweh, And do not make Your inheritance a reproach, A byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”