Psalm 78:12–53

¹²the miracles he did for their ancestors

on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

¹³For he divided the sea and led them through,

making the water stand up like walls!

¹⁴In the daytime he led them by a cloud,

and all night by a pillar of fire.

¹⁵He split open the rocks in the wilderness

to give them water, as from a gushing spring.

¹⁶He made streams pour from the rock,

making the waters flow down like a river!

¹⁷Yet they kept on sinning against him,

rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They stubbornly tested God in their hearts,

demanding the foods they craved.

¹⁹They even spoke against God himself, saying,

“God can’t give us food in the wilderness.

²⁰Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out,

but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”

²¹When the Lord heard them, he was furious.

The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob.

Yes, his anger rose against Israel,

²²for they did not believe God

or trust him to care for them.

²³But he commanded the skies to open;

he opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat;

he gave them bread from heaven.

²⁵They ate the food of angels!

God gave them all they could hold.

²⁶He released the east wind in the heavens

and guided the south wind by his mighty power.

²⁷He rained down meat as thick as dust—

birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!

²⁸He caused the birds to fall within their camp

and all around their tents.

²⁹The people ate their fill.

He gave them what they craved.

³⁰But before they satisfied their craving,

while the meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them,

and he killed their strongest men.

He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.

³²But in spite of this, the people kept sinning.

Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.

³³So he ended their lives in failure,

their years in terror.

³⁴When God began killing them,

they finally sought him.

They repented and took God seriously.

³⁵Then they remembered that God was their rock,

that God Most High was their redeemer.

³⁶But all they gave him was lip service;

they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their hearts were not loyal to him.

They did not keep his covenant.

³⁸Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins

and did not destroy them all.

Many times he held back his anger

and did not unleash his fury!

³⁹For he remembered that they were merely mortal,

gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

⁴⁰Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.

⁴¹Again and again they tested God’s patience

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power

and how he rescued them from their enemies.

⁴³They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt,

his wonders on the plain of Zoan.

⁴⁴For he turned their rivers into blood,

so no one could drink from the streams.

⁴⁵He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them

and hordes of frogs to ruin them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to caterpillars;

their harvest was consumed by locusts.

⁴⁷He destroyed their grapevines with hail

and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hail,

their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He loosed on them his fierce anger—

all his fury, rage, and hostility.

He dispatched against them

a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He turned his anger against them;

he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives

but ravaged them with the plague.

⁵¹He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family,

the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.

⁵²But he led his own people like a flock of sheep,

guiding them safely through the wilderness.

⁵³He kept them safe so they were not afraid;

but the sea covered their enemies.