23 And then, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, telling you: "Go up and take possession of the land that I’m giving you," you disobeyed the Lord your God’s command. You didn’t trust him. You didn’t obey God’s voice.
24 You’ve been rebellious toward the Lord from the day I met you.
25 But I fell on my knees in the Lord’s presence forty days and forty nights, lying flat out, because the Lord planned on wiping you out.
26 But I prayed to the Lord! I said: Lord, my Lord! Don’t destroy your people, your own possession, whom you saved by your own power, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand!
27 Remember your servants: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Don’t focus on this people’s stubbornness, wickedness, and sin.
28 Otherwise, that land out of which you brought us will say: The Lord wasn’t strong enough to bring them into the land he’d promised them. Because he didn’t care for them in the least, he brought them out to die in the desert.
29 But these are your people! Your own possession! The people you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm!