How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness,

And grieve him in the desert!

Yea, they turned back and tempted God,

And limited the Holy One of Israel.

They remembered not his hand,

Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt,

And his wonders in the field of Zoan:
And had turned their rivers into blood;

And their floods, that they could not drink.

He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them;

And frogs, which destroyed them.

He

gave

also their increase unto the caterpiller,

And their labour unto the locust.

He destroyed their vines with hail,

And their sycomore trees with frost.
He gave up their cattle also to the hail,
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,

By sending evil angels among

He made a way to his anger;

them.

He spared not their soul from death,
But gave their life over to the pestilence;

And smote all the firstborn in Egypt;

The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

But made his own people to go forth like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, Even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

He cast out the heathen also before them,

And divided them an inheritance by line,

And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, And kept not his testimonies:

But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers:

They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places,

And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth,

And greatly abhorred Israel:

So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,

The tent which he placed among men;

And delivered his strength into captivity,
And his glory into the enemy's hand.

He gave his people over also unto the sword;
And was wroth with his inheritance.

The fire consumed their young men;

And their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword;

And their widows made no lamentation.

Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,

And like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts:
He put them to a perpetual reproach.

Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
But chose the tribe of Judah,

The mount Zion which he loved.

And he built his sanctuary like high palaces,

Like the earth which he hath established for ever. He chose David also his servant,

And took him from the sheepfolds:

From following the ewes great with young he brought him

To feed Jacob his people,

And Israel his inheritance.

So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

LXXIX

A Psalm of Asaph

O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled;

They have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given To be meat unto the fowls of the heaven,

The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water

Round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

We are become a reproach to our neighbours,

A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee,

And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

For they have devoured Jacob,

And laid waste his dwelling place.

O remember not against us former iniquities:
Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us:
For we are brought very low.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name:

And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?

Let him be known among the heathen in our sight

By the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; According to the greatness of thy power

Preserve thou those that are appointed to die;

And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom

Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture
Will give thee thanks for ever:

We will shew forth thy praise to all generations.

LXXX

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth
A Psalm of Asaph

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,

Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock;

Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh

Stir up thy strength,

And come and save us.

Turn us again, O God,

And cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

O Lord God of hosts,