4. [Earnestly] remember me, O Lord, when You favor Your people! O visit me also when You deliver them, and grant me Your salvation!–
5. That I may see and share the welfare of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your heritage.
6. We have sinned, as did also our fathers; we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. [Lev. 26:40-42.]
7. Our fathers in Egypt understood not nor appreciated Your miracles; they did not [earnestly] remember the multitude of Your mercies nor imprint Your loving-kindness [on their hearts], but they were rebellious and provoked the Lord at the sea, even at the Red Sea. [Exod. 14:21.]
8. Nevertheless He saved them for His name's sake [to prove the righteousness of the divine character], that He might make His mighty power known.
9. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; so He led them through the depths as through a pastureland. [Exod. 14:21.]
10. And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the [Egyptian] enemy. [Exod. 14:30.]
11. And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. [Exod. 14:27, 28; 15:5.]
12. Then [Israel] believed His words [trusting in, relying on them]; they sang His praise.
13. But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them,
14. But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert. [Num. 11:4.]
15. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death. [Ps. 78:29-31.]
16. They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron [the high priest], the holy one of the Lord. [Num. 16:1-32.]
17. Therefore the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and closed over the company of Abiram. [Num. 16:31, 32.]
18. And a fire broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. [Num. 16:35, 46.]
19. They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image. [Exod. 32:4.]
20. Thus they exchanged Him Who was their Glory for the image of an ox that eats grass [they traded their Honor for the image of a calf]!
21. They forgot God their Savior, Who had done such great things in Egypt,
22. Wonders and miracles in the land of Ham, dreadful and awesome things at the Red Sea.
23. Therefore He said He would destroy them. [And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the breach before Him to turn away His threatening wrath. [Exod. 32:10, 11, 32.]