48. He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49. He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility— a band of destroying angels.
50. He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.
51. He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52. But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53. He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54. And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55. He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
56. But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
57. Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58. They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59. When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely.
60. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans.
61. He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62. He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance.
63. Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs;
64. their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.