Numbers 11:2

⁷The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.

¹⁶Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

⁴⁵“Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces.

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD! The plague has begun.”

⁴⁷Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. The plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.

¹⁰Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

¹¹Moses begged the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring^[+] as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

¹⁴So the LORD turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.

³⁴When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. ³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

³¹Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. ³²Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”

²³Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

²⁶The LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.” ²⁷Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. ²⁸What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?” He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

²⁹He spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?” He said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.”

³⁰He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

³¹He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”

³²He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”

³³The LORD went his way as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us,

¹My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor^[+] with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. ²And he is the atoning sacrifice^[+] for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

²When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

³The LORD relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says the LORD.

⁴Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. ⁵Then I said, “Lord GOD, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”

⁶The LORD relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord GOD.