¹⁸ even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf^(A) and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.^(B)

¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon^(C) them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud^(D) did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit^(E) to instruct^(F) them. You did not withhold your manna^(G) from their mouths, and you gave them water^(H) for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years^(I) you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing,^(J) their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.^(K)

²² “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon^[a](L) king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan.^{(M) 23} You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky,^(N) and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. ²⁴ Their children went in and took possession of the land.^(O) You subdued^(P) before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. ²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land;^(Q) they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things,^(R) wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished;^(S) they reveled in your great goodness.^(T)