¹⁶ ‘But they and our ancestors acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks and did not obey your commandments; ¹⁷ they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them. ¹⁸ Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, “This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt”, and had committed great blasphemies, ¹⁹ you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not leave them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night that gave them light on the way by which they should go. ²⁰ You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. ²² And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted to them every corner,^[a] so they took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan. ²³ You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land that you had told their ancestors to enter and possess. ²⁴ So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased. ²⁵ And they captured fortress cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses filled with all sorts of goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became fat, and delighted in your great goodness.

Psalm 25

Prayer for Guidance and for Deliverance

Of David.

Final Exhortations, Greetings, and Benediction

¹² But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters,^[a] to respect those who labour among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; ¹³ esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ And we urge you, beloved,^[b] to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. ¹⁵ See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise the words of prophets,^{[c] 21} but test everything; hold fast to what is good; ²² abstain from every form of evil.