56. Yet they tempted and provoked and rebelled against the Most High God and kept not His testimonies.
57. But they turned back and dealt unfaithfully and treacherously like their fathers; they were twisted like a warped and deceitful bow [that will not respond to the archer's aim].
58. For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [for idol worship] and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59. When God heard this, He was full of [holy] wrath; and He utterly rejected Israel, greatly abhorring and loathing [her ways],
60. So that He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent in which He had dwelt among men [and never returned to it again],
61. And delivered His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity, and His glory into the hands of the foe (the Philistines). [I Sam. 4:21.]
62. He gave His people over also to the sword and was wroth with His heritage [Israel]. [I Sam. 4:10.]
63. The fire [of war] devoured their young men, and their bereaved virgins were not praised in a wedding song.
64. Their priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation [for the bodies came not back from the scene of battle, and the widow of Phinehas also died that day]. [I Sam. 4:11, 19, 20.]
65. Then the Lord awakened as from sleep, as a strong man whose consciousness of power is heightened by wine.
66. And He smote His adversaries in the back [as they fled]; He put them to lasting shame and reproach.
67. Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle had been accustomed to stand].
68. But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel's leader], Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].
69. And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens] and like the earth which He established forever.
70. He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; [I Sam. 16:11, 12.]
71. From tending the ewes that had their young He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob His people, of Israel His inheritance. [II Sam. 7:7, 8.]