27. scattering their offspring among the nations,casting them across many lands.
28. They joined themselves to Baal-peorand ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29. They made God angry by what they did,so a plague broke out against them.
30. Then Phinehas stood up and prayed,and the plague was contained.
31. That’s why Phinehas is considered righteous,generation after generation, forever.
32. But they angered God at Meribah’s waters,and things went badly for Moses because of them,
33. because they made him bitterso that he spoke rashly with his lips.
34. They didn’t destroy the nationsas the Lord had ordered them to do.
35. Instead, they got mixed up with the nations,learning what they did
36. and serving those false gods,which became a trap for them.
37. They sacrificed their own sons and daughters to demons!
38. They shed innocent blood,the blood of their own sons and daughters—the ones they sacrificed to Canaan’s false gods—so the land was defiled by the bloodshed.
39. They made themselves unclean by what they did; they prostituted themselves by their actions.
40. So the Lord’s anger burned against his people;he despised his own possession.
41. God handed them over to the nations;people who hated them ruled over them.
42. Their enemies oppressed them,and they were humbled under their power.
43. God delivered them numerous times,but they were determined to rebel,and so they were brought down by their own sin.
44. But God saw their distresswhen he heard their loud cries.
45. God remembered his covenant for their sake,and because of how much faithful love he has,God changed his mind.