Psalm 78:43–68

⁴³when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt, 

his wonders in the fields of Zoan. 

⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood 

so that they could not drink from their streams. 

⁴⁵He sent a swarm of flies that bit them 

and frogs that ruined them. 

⁴⁶He gave their crops to grasshoppers 

and their produce to locusts. 

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail 

and their fig trees with frost. 

⁴⁸He let the hail strike their cattle 

and bolts of lightning strike their livestock. 

⁴⁹He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them. 

He sent an army of destroying angels. 

⁵⁰He cleared a path for his anger. 

He did not spare them. 

He let the plague take their lives. 

⁵¹He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt, 

the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young. 

⁵²But he led his own people out like sheep 

and guided them like a flock through the wilderness. 

⁵³He led them safely. 

They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies. 

⁵⁴He brought them into his holy land, 

to this mountain that his power had won. 

⁵⁵He forced nations out of their way 

and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. 

He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents. 

⁵⁶They tested God Most High and rebelled against him. 

They did not obey his written instructions. 

⁵⁷They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. 

They were like arrows shot from a defective bow. 

⁵⁸They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites. 

They made him furious because they worshiped idols. 

⁵⁹When God heard, he became furious. 

He completely rejected Israel. 

⁶⁰He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh, 

the tent where he had lived among humans. 

⁶¹He allowed his power to be taken captive 

and handed his glory over to an oppressor. 

⁶²He let swords kill his people. 

He was furious with those who belonged to him. 

⁶³Fire consumed his best young men, 

so his virgins heard no wedding songs. 

⁶⁴His priests were cut down with swords. 

The widows ⸤of his priests⸥ could not even weep ⸤for them⸥. 

⁶⁵Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping, 

like a warrior sobering up from ⸤too much⸥ wine. 

⁶⁶He struck his enemies from behind 

and disgraced them forever. 

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph. 

He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 

⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah, 

Mount Zion which he loved.