17. They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you did among them. They stiffened their neck and in their rebellion determined to return to their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in loyal love, so you did not abandon them.
18. Even when they made for themselves a molten idol of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you out from Egypt,’ and committed great blasphemies.
19. But you in your many mercies did not abandon them in the desert. The column of cloud that was over them in the day did not cease to leave them on the way, and the column of fire by night that gave light to them on the way that they went.
20. And you gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
21. Forty years you sustained them in the desert—they were not in need. Their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
22. And you gave them kingdoms and nations and allotted them a portion. They took into possession the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23. You made their children numerous like the stars of the heavens and brought them to the land that you told their ancestors to enter in order to take possession.