[34] Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again. [35] They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. [36] But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; [37] their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. [38] Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. [39] He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. [40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland! [41] Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. [42] They did not remember his power—the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, [43] the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. [44] He turned their river into blood; they could not drink from their streams. [45] He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. [46] He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust. [47] He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet. [48] He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. [49] He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility—a band of destroying angels. [50] He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague. [51] He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham. [52] But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness. [53] He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
