Psalms 78:38-72

³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹And he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They remembered not his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labor unto the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycomore-trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹And smote all the first-born in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³And he led them safely, so that they feared not; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.

⁵⁵He drove out the nations also before them, And allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And kept not his testimonies;

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary’s hand.

⁶²He gave his people over also unto the sword, And was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men; And their virgins had no marriage-song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David also his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.