¹ Hallelujah!¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

1. Or Hallelu YAH, meaning Praise the LORD; also in verse 48

² Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD or fully proclaim His praise?

³ Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

⁴ Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

⁵ that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance.

⁶ We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

⁷ Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.¹

1. Or the Sea of Reeds; also in verses 9 and 22

⁸ Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.

⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

¹⁰ He saved them from the hand that hated them; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹¹ The waters covered their foes; not one of them remained.

¹² Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.

¹³ Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

¹⁴ They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

¹⁵ So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

¹⁶ In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

¹⁷ The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.

¹⁸ Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

¹⁹ At Horeb¹ they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

1. That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai

²⁰ They exchanged their Glory¹ for the image of a grass-eating ox.

1. Or their glorious God

²¹ They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

²² wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

²³ So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

²⁴ They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.

²⁵ They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

²⁶ So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,

²⁷ to disperse¹ their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

1. Or cast down or cause to fall

²⁸ They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

²⁹ So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰ But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.

³¹ It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

³² At the waters of Meribah¹ they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them.

1. Meribah means quarreling; see Exodus 17:7.

³³ For they rebelled against His Spirit,¹ and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

1. Or they provoked His Spirit

³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,

³⁵ but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

³⁶ They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

³⁷ They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

³⁸ They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

³⁹ They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

⁴⁰ So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

⁴¹ He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴² Their enemies oppressed them, and subdued them under their hand.

⁴³ Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁴ Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

⁴⁶ He made them objects of compassion to all who held them captive.

⁴⁷ Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, that we may glory in Your praise.

⁴⁸ Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!