"So that you may be proved right when you speak
and prevail when you judge."^[a]

"There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹  there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."^[b]
13 "Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."^[c]
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."^[d]
14  "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."^[e]
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶  ruin and misery mark their ways,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know."^[f]
18  "There is no fear of God before their eyes."^[g]

⁵ Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
⁶ you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
⁷ He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.

⁸ He remembers his covenant forever,
the promise he made, for a thousand generations,
⁹ the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
¹⁰ He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
¹¹ "To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion you will inherit."

¹² When they were but few in number,
few indeed, and strangers in it,
¹³ they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
¹⁴ He allowed no one to oppress them;
for their sake he rebuked kings:
¹⁵ "Do not touch my anointed ones;
do my prophets no harm."

¹⁶ He called down famine on the land
and destroyed all their supplies of food;
¹⁷ and he sent a man before them−
Joseph, sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles,
his neck was put in irons,
¹⁹ till what he foretold came to pass,
till the word of the Lord proved him true.
²⁰ The king sent and released him,
the ruler of peoples set him free.
²¹ He made him master of his household,
ruler over all he possessed,
²² to instruct his princes as he pleased
and teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Then Israel entered Egypt;
Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
²⁴ The Lord made his people very fruitful;
he made them too numerous for their foes,
²⁵ whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
to conspire against his servants.
²⁶ He sent Moses his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They performed his signs among them,
his wonders in the land of Ham.
²⁸ He sent darkness and made the land dark−
for had they not rebelled against his words?
²⁹ He turned their waters into blood,
causing their fish to die.
³⁰ Their land teemed with frogs,
which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.
³¹ He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
and gnats throughout their country.
³² He turned their rain into hail,
with lightning throughout their land;
³³ he struck down their vines and fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came,
grasshoppers without number;
³⁵ they ate up every green thing in their land,
ate up the produce of their soil.
³⁶ Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their manhood.
³⁷ He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,
and from among their tribes no one faltered.
³⁸ Egypt was glad when they left,
because dread of Israel had fallen on them.

³⁹ He spread out a cloud as a covering,
and a fire to give light at night.
⁴⁰ They asked, and he brought them quail;
he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
⁴¹ He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed like a river in the desert.

⁴² For he remembered his holy promise
given to his servant Abraham.
⁴³ He brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
⁴⁴ he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they fell heir to what others had toiled for−
⁴⁵ that they might keep his precepts
and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord.^[a]

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

² Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord
or fully declare his praise?
³ Blessed are those who act justly,
who always do what is right.

⁴ Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people,
come to my aid when you save them,
⁵ that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may share in the joy of your nation
and join your inheritance in giving praise.

⁶ We have sinned, even as our ancestors did;
we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
⁷ When our ancestors were in Egypt,
they gave no thought to your miracles;
they did not remember your many kindnesses,
and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.^[c]
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
to make his mighty power known.
⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
he led them through the depths as through a desert.
¹⁰ He saved them from the hand of the foe;
from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.
¹¹ The waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them survived.
¹² Then they believed his promises
and sang his praise.

¹³ But they soon forgot what he had done
and did not wait for his plan to unfold.
¹⁴ In the desert they gave in to their craving;
in the wilderness they put God to the test.
¹⁵ So he gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.

¹⁶ In the camp they grew envious of Moses
and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
¹⁷ The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it buried the company of Abiram.
¹⁸ Fire blazed among their followers;
a flame consumed the wicked.
¹⁹ At Horeb they made a calf
and worshiped an idol cast from metal.
²⁰ They exchanged their glorious God
for an image of a bull, which eats grass.
²¹ They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
²² miracles in the land of Ham
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
²³ So he said he would destroy them−
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.

²⁴ Then they despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe his promise.
²⁵ They grumbled in their tents
and did not obey the Lord.
²⁶ So he swore to them with uplifted hand
that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
²⁷ make their descendants fall among the nations
and scatter them throughout the lands.

²⁸ They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
²⁹ they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
³⁰ But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was checked.
³¹ This was credited to him as righteousness
for endless generations to come.
³² By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,
and trouble came to Moses because of them;
³³ for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
and rash words came from Moses’ lips.^[d]

³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them,
³⁵ but they mingled with the nations
and adopted their customs.
³⁶ They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
³⁷ They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to false gods.
³⁸ They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was desecrated by their blood.
³⁹ They defiled themselves by what they did;
by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

⁴⁰ Therefore the Lord was angry with his people
and abhorred his inheritance.
⁴¹ He gave them into the hands of the nations,
and their foes ruled over them.
⁴² Their enemies oppressed them
and subjected them to their power.
⁴³ Many times he delivered them,
but they were bent on rebellion
and they wasted away in their sin.
⁴⁴ Yet he took note of their distress
when he heard their cry;
⁴⁵ for their sake he remembered his covenant
and out of his great love he relented.
⁴⁶ He caused all who held them captive
to show them mercy.

⁴⁷ Save us, Lord our God,
and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in your praise.

⁴⁸ Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, "Amen!"

Praise the Lord.