31. This has been remembered in his favour ever sinceand will be for all time to come.
32. At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry,and Moses was in trouble on their account.
33. They made him so bitterthat he spoke without stopping to think.
34. They did not kill the heathen,as the Lord had commanded them to do,
35. but they intermarried with themand adopted their pagan ways.
36. God's people worshipped idols,and this caused their destruction.
37. They offered their own sons and daughtersas sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
38. They killed those innocent children,and the land was defiled by those murders.
39. They made themselves impure by their actionsand were unfaithful to God.
40. So the Lord was angry with his people;he was disgusted with them.
41. He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,and their enemies ruled over them.
42. They were oppressed by their enemiesand were in complete subjection to them.
43. Many times the Lord rescued his people,but they chose to rebel against himand sank deeper into sin.
44. Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out,and he took notice of their distress.