| 1 Wisdom gave success to their actions through a holy prophet; | |
| 2 they crossed an uninhabited wilderness and pitched camp in inaccessible places. | |
| 3 They stood up to their enemies and fought off the hostile. | |
| 4 When they were thirsty they called on you and you gave them water from hard flint, from a rocky cliff, a welcome relief for the parched. | |
| 5 The same creatures you used to punish their enemies were of benefit to them in their trouble. | |
| 6 For their enemies an ever-flowing source of river water was polluted with blood – | |
| 7 a stern response to the decree ordering the slaughter of infants. But, against all hope, you gave your people water in abundance, | |
| 8 showing them by the thirst they suffered, how you had punished their enemies. | |
| 9 Their trials were no more than merciful reproofs. Through them, your people learned how severely the wicked were judged and punished. | |
| 10 You tested them as does a father, while you examined their enemies like a stern king. | |
| 11 Their enemies suffered at the time and also later. | |
| 12 When they remembered the past, theirs was a double grief and groaning. | |
| 13 They came to see that it was the work of the Lord when they realized that their punishment had benefited the others. | |
| 14 Long before, they had exposed Moses; they had rejected him in derision; but now they admired him because of what had happened, and after they had suffered a thirst far different from that of the righteous. | |
| 15 Their wickedness and foolish ideas led them astray, even to worshiping snakes and other repugnant animals; this is why you sent them hordes of similar creatures, | |
| 16 teaching them that punishment takes the same form as the sin. | |
| 17 In fact, your almighty power that created the world from formless matter did not lack means to unleash upon them bears and savage lions, | |
| 18 or monsters freshly created, unknown and full of fury, breathing fire or noisily spitting smoke or flashing fearful sparks from their eyes, | |
| 19 creatures not only capable of destroying them at a single blow but whose mere appearance could make them die of fright. | |
| 20 Even without this, they could have dropped dead at a single breath if pursued by your justice, or dispersed by the breath of your might; but you ordered all with measure, number and weight. | |
| 21 You are able to show your power at any moment and who can resist the strength of your arm? | |
| 22 For the entire world lies before you, just enough to tip the scales, a drop of morning dew falling on the ground. | |
| 23 But because you are almighty, you are merciful to all; you overlook sins and give your children time to repent. | |
| 24 You love everything that exists and hate nothing that you have made; had you hated anything, you would not have formed it. | |
| 25 How could anything endure if you did not will it? And how could anything last that you had not willed? | |
| 26 You have compassion on all because all is yours, O Lord, lover of life. | |
