⁴⁰ How often they rebelled^(A) against him in the wilderness^(B)
    and grieved him^(C) in the wasteland!

⁸ “Do not harden your hearts^(A) as you did at Meribah,^[a](B)
    as you did that day at Massah^[b] in the wilderness,^(C)
9 where your ancestors tested^(D) me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years^(E) I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,^(F)
    and they have not known my ways.’^(G)

²³ So he said he would destroy^(A) them—
    had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach^(B) before him
    to keep his wrath from destroying them.