Psalm 78:43–68

⁴³when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt

and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.^o

⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood,

and they could not drink from their streams.^p

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies,^q

which fed on them,

and frogs, which devastated them.^r

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the caterpillar

and the fruit of their labor to the locust.^s

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail

and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.

⁴⁸He handed over their livestock to hail

and their cattle to lightning bolts.^t

⁴⁹He sent his burning anger against them:

fury, indignation, and calamity—

a band of deadly messengers.^Bu

⁵⁰He cleared a path for his anger.

He did not spare them from death

but delivered their lives to the plague.^v

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn^w in Egypt,

the first progeny of the tents of Ham.^x

⁵²He led his people out like sheep

and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.^y

⁵³He led them safely, and they were not afraid;

but the sea covered their enemies.^z

⁵⁴He brought them to his holy territory,

to the mountain his right hand acquired.^aa

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them.^ab

He apportioned their inheritance by lot

and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.^ac

⁵⁶But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,

for they did not keep his decrees.^ad

⁵⁷They treacherously turned away like their ancestors;

they became warped like a faulty bow.^ae

⁵⁸They enraged him with their high places

and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.^a

⁵⁹God heard and became furious;

he completely rejected Israel.^b

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,

the tent where he resided among mankind.^c

⁶¹He gave up his strength to captivity

and his splendor to the hand of a foe.^d

⁶²He surrendered his people to the sword

because he was enraged with his heritage.^e

⁶³Fire consumed his chosen young men,

and his young women had no wedding songs.^Af

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword,

and the widows could not lament.^g

⁶⁵The Lord awoke as if from sleep,

like a warrior from the effects of wine.^h

⁶⁶He beat back his foes;

he gave them lasting disgrace.ⁱ

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph

and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸He chose instead the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which he loved.^j