| 1 She made their affairs prosper through the holy prophet. |
| 2 They journeyed through the uninhabited desert, and in solitudes they pitched their tents; |
| 3 they withstood enemies and took vengeance on their foes. |
| 4 When they thirsted, they called upon you, and water was given them from the sheer rock, assuagement for their thirst from the hard stone. |
| 5 For by the things through which their foes were punished they in their need were benefited. |
| 6 Instead of a spring, when the perennial river was troubled with impure blood |
| 7 as a rebuke to the decree for the slaying of infants, You gave them abundant water in an unhoped-for way, |
| 8 once you had shown by the thirst they then had how you punished their adversaries. |
| 9 For when they had been tried, though only mildly chastised, they recognized how the wicked, condemned in anger, were being tormented. |
| 10 the latter you tested, admonishing them as a father; the former as a stern king you probed and condemned. |
| 11 Both those afar off and those close by were afflicted: |
| 12 For a twofold grief took hold of them and a groaning at the remembrance of the ones who had departed. |
| 13 For when they heard that the cause of their own torments was a benefit to these others, they recognized the Lord. |
| 14 Him who of old had been cast out in exposure they indeed mockingly rejected; but in the end of events, they marveled at him, since their thirst proved unlike that of the just. |
| 15 And in return for their senseless, wicked thoughts, which misled them into worshiping dumb serpents and worthless insects, You sent upon them swarms of dumb creatures for vengeance; |
| 16 that they might recognize that a man is punished by the very things through which he sins. |
| 17 For not without means was your almighty hand, that had fashioned the universe from formless matter, to send upon them a drove of bears or fierce lions, |
| 18 Or new-created, wrathful, unknown beasts to breathe forth fiery breath, Or pour out roaring smoke, or flash terrible sparks from their eyes. |
| 19 Not only could these attack and completely destroy them; even their frightful appearance itself could slay. |
| 20 Even without these, they could have been killed at a single blast, pursued by retribution and winnowed out by your mighty spirit; But you have disposed all things by measure and number and weight. |
| 21 For with you great strength abides always; who can resist the might of your arm? |
| 22 Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. |
| 23 But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent. |
| 24 For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. |
| 25 And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? |
| 26 But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls, |