Psalm 78:43–68

⁴³They forgot how he had shown them his miraculous signs in Egypt.

They forgot his miracles in the area of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned the rivers of Egypt into blood.

The people of Egypt couldn’t drink water from their streams.

⁴⁵He sent large numbers of flies that bit them.

He sent frogs that destroyed their land.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshoppers.

He gave their food to the locusts.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail.

He destroyed their fig trees with sleet.

⁴⁸He killed their cattle with hail.

Their livestock were struck by lightning.

⁴⁹He brought great trouble on Egypt by pouring out his blazing anger.

In his hot anger he sent destroying angels against them.

⁵⁰God prepared a path for his anger.

He didn’t spare their lives.

He gave them over to the plague.

⁵¹He killed the oldest son of each family in Egypt.

He struck down the oldest son in every house in the land of Ham.

⁵²But he brought his people out like a flock.

He led them like sheep through the desert.

⁵³He guided them safely, and they weren’t afraid.

But the Red Sea swallowed up their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought his people to the border of his holy land.

He led them to the central hill country he had taken by his power.

⁵⁵He drove the nations out to make room for his people.

He gave to each family a piece of land to pass on to their children.

He settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

⁵⁶But they put God to the test.

They refused to obey the Most High God.

They didn’t keep his laws.

⁵⁷Like their people who lived before them,

they turned away from him and were not faithful.

They were like a bow that doesn’t shoot straight.

They couldn’t be trusted.

⁵⁸They made God angry by going to their high places.

They made him jealous by worshiping the statues of their gods.

⁵⁹When God saw what the people were doing, he was very angry.

He turned away from them completely.

⁶⁰He deserted the holy tent at Shiloh.

He left the tent he had set up among his people.

⁶¹He allowed the ark to be captured.

Into the hands of his enemies he sent the ark where his glory rested.

⁶²He let his people be killed with swords.

He was very angry with them.

⁶³Fire destroyed their young men.

Their young women had no one to get married to.

⁶⁴Their priests were killed with swords.

Their widows weren’t able to cry.

⁶⁵Then the Lord woke up as if he had been sleeping.

He was like a man waking up from the deep sleep caused by wine.

⁶⁶He drove his enemies back.

He put them to shame that will last forever.

⁶⁷He turned his back on the tents of the people of Joseph.

He didn’t choose to live in the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸Instead, he chose to live in the tribe of Judah.

He chose Mount Zion, which he loved.