Psalms 78:38–40

¹⁷Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.

⁹¶ For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.

¹⁸The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

¹⁹Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

²⁰And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

²⁰And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did.

⁶And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

⁷Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

⁸And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

⁹And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

¹³But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

¹⁴But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.

²¹Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

²²Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.

²¹¶ Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.

²²I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

⁸But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

⁹But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴¶ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

⁴⁵Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces.

⁴⁶¶ And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun.

⁴⁷And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people.

⁴⁸And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.

⁴³Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:

⁴⁵And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

³And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

⁷O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.

¹⁶I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

⁹Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

¹⁴For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

¹⁵As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

¹⁶For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

³⁰And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

⁸Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

⁹When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

¹⁰Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

¹⁵While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

¹⁶For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

¹⁷But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

¹⁰¶ But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

¹¹¶ And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

²¹And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

²²And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked the Lord to wrath.

¹³And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

¹⁴But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

¹⁵And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

¹⁶They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord.

¹⁷The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.

¹⁸And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.

¹⁹They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

²⁰Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

²¹They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;

²²Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.

²³Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

²⁴Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:

²⁵But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord.

²⁶Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:

²⁷To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

²⁸They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

²⁹Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.

³⁰Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.

³¹And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

³²They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:

³³Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

¹¹Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:

¹⁷And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.