Numbers 14:14-16

Revised Standard Version

¹⁴ and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, O Lord, art in the midst of this people; for thou, O Lord, art seen face to face, and thy cloud stands over them and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if thou dost kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard thy fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to give to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’