Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses, His chosen one, stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath from destroying them.
He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, for we are a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Then the Lord said to me: Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, yet My heart would not be with this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go!
Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before You to speak good for them, and to turn away Your wrath from them.
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?’ ”
So he said to the vinedresser of his vineyard, ‘Now these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it deplete the soil?’
The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness. But He is patient with us, because He does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.