36. But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
37. their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
38. Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.
39. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
40. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!
41. Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42. They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43. the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44. He turned their river into blood; they could not drink from their streams.
45. He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
46. He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
47. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48. He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.