^{40 Ref} How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!

^{41 Ref} And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.

^{42 Ref} They remember not his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

^{43 Ref} How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan,

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

^{45 Ref} He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.

^{46 Ref} He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labor unto the locust.

^{47 Ref} He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycomore-trees with frost.

^{48 Ref} He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

^{49 Ref} He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.

^{50 Ref} He made a path for his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,

^{51 Ref} And smote all the first-born in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

^{52 Ref} But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

^{53 Ref} And he led them safely, so that they feared not; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

^{54 Ref} And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.

^{55 Ref} He drove out the nations also before them, And allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

^{56 Ref} Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And kept not his testimonies;

^{57 Ref} But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

^{58 Ref} For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

^{59 Ref} When God heard `this', he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;

^{60 Ref} So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;

^{61 Ref} And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary's hand.

^{62 Ref} He gave his people over also unto the sword, And was wroth with his inheritance.

^{63 Ref} Fire devoured their young men; And their virgins had no marriage-song.

^{64 Ref} Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation.

^{65 Ref} Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

^{66 Ref} And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach.

^{67 Ref} Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

^{68 Ref} But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved.

^{69 Ref} And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he hath established for ever.

^{70 Ref} He chose David also his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds:

^{71 Ref} From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

^{72 Ref} So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. Psalm 79 A Psalm of Asaph.