38. But God was merciful. He forgave their sins and did not destroy them. Many times he held back his anger. He never let it get out of control.
39. He remembered that they were only people, like a wind that blows and then is gone.
40. Oh, they caused him so much trouble in the desert! They made him so sad.
41. Again and again they tested his patience. They really hurt the Holy One of Israel.
42. They forgot about his power. They forgot the many times he saved them from the enemy.
43. They forgot the miracles in Egypt, the miracles in the fields of Zoan.
44. God turned the rivers into blood, and the Egyptians could not drink the water.
45. He sent swarms of flies that bit them. He sent the frogs that ruined their lives.
46. He gave their crops to grasshoppers and their other plants to locusts.
47. He destroyed their vines with hail and their trees with sleet.