17"But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared,
18'The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.'
19"Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."
Moses listened to God and trusted all that God said and was horrified by the rebellion of the people as he knew their holy and just God would have to punish them. Once again, Moses interceded for them before God. Moses spoke the truth about God's character and reasoned with God to pardon the sins of the people. God responded to Moses' request and did pardon the sin, but also explained the consequences of their actions. Only Caleb and Joshua would live to enter into the promised land, all the others would die as they wandered in the desert for 40 years.
What happened next was full of the same fleshly thinking that got them into trouble in the first place. Instead of waiting on the Lord to direct them, some of them made up their minds to do what they refused to do in the first place, go into the promised land, even though God told them they would die in the desert. Moses tried to warn them that they wouldn't be successful against their enemies, but these headstrong people went anyway and were killed. They compounded sin upon sin as they tried to come up with their own way to make up for the first sin continuing their pattern of listening to everyone but God through his chosen man, Moses.