If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say,
Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.
‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”