Now if thou shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
And LORD said to him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shall smite the Midianites as one man.
Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, He brought them forth for evil, to kill them on the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and relent of this evil against thy people.
Because LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.