Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them.
Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn towards this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out!
But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations amongst which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted; the LORD has not done all this.’”