Psalms 78:43-68

43How He worked His miracles in Egypt And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided],

44And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.

45He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them, And frogs which destroyed them.

46He also gave their crops to the grasshopper, And the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones And their sycamore trees with frost.

48He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones, And their flocks and herds to thunderbolts.

49He sent upon them His burning anger, His fury and indignation and distress, A band of angels of destruction [among them].

50He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run]; He did not spare their souls from death, But turned over their lives to the plague.

51He killed all the firstborn in Egypt, The first and best of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.

52But God led His own people forward like sheep And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock.

53He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies.

54So He brought them to His holy land, To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.

55He also drove out the nations before the sons of Israel And allotted their land as an inheritance, measured out and partitioned; And He had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents [the tents of those who had been dispossessed].

56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies (laws).

57They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].

58For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [devoted to idol worship] And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images [by denying Him the love, worship, and obedience that is rightfully and uniquely His].

59When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath; And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways],

60So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, The tent in which He had dwelled among men,

61And gave up His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity, And His glory into the hand of the enemy (the Philistines).

62He also handed His people over to the sword, And was infuriated with His inheritance (Israel).

63The fire [of war] devoured His young men, And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs.

64His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.

65Then the Lord awakened as from sleep, Like a [mighty] warrior who awakens from the sleep of wine [fully conscious of his power].

66He drove His enemies backward; He subjected them to lasting shame and dishonor.

67Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].

68But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader], Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].