Psalm 78:43–68

⁴³the day he displayed his signs^v in Egypt,

his wonders^w in the region of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their river into blood;^x

they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies^y that devoured them,

and frogs^z that devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper,^a

their produce to the locust.^b

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail^c

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle to the hail,

their livestock^d to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He unleashed against them his hot anger,^e

his wrath, indignation and hostility—

a band of destroying angels.^f

⁵⁰He prepared a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,^g

the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.^h

⁵²But he brought his people out like a flock;ⁱ

he led them like sheep through the wilderness.

⁵³He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

but the sea engulfed^j their enemies.^k

⁵⁴And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,

to the hill country his right hand^l had taken.

⁵⁵He drove out nations^m before them

and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;ⁿ

he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

⁵⁶But they put God to the test

and rebelled against the Most High;

they did not keep his statutes.

⁵⁷Like their ancestors^o they were disloyal and faithless,

as unreliable as a faulty bow.^p

⁵⁸They angered him^q with their high places;^r

they aroused his jealousy with their idols.^s

⁵⁹When God heard^t them, he was furious;^u

he rejected Israel^v completely.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,^w

the tent he had set up among humans.^x

⁶¹He sent the ark of his might^y into captivity,^z

his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

⁶²He gave his people over to the sword;^a

he was furious with his inheritance.^b

⁶³Fire consumed^c their young men,

and their young women had no wedding songs;^d

⁶⁴their priests were put to the sword,^e

and their widows could not weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,^f

as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.

⁶⁶He beat back his enemies;

he put them to everlasting shame.^g

⁶⁷Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;^h

⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah,ⁱ

Mount Zion,^j which he loved.