Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath and relent of this harm against Your people.
But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the nations among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
Between the temple porch and the altar, let the priests, ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Have pity upon Your people, and do not make Your inheritance a disgrace, a mockery among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled like muck in the streets.
Otherwise, the land from which You brought us may say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them and because He hated them, He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.’