16 And so it was appropriate that these people were punished by such creatures—tormented by swarms of them.

^2 (A)But you, O Lord, did not punish your people in this way; instead, you showed them kindness. You sent them quails to eat, a rare, delicious food to satisfy their hunger. ³ You did all this so that the idolaters, when they were hungry, would be unable to eat because of the disgusting creatures sent to them. Your people, however, suffered hunger only a short while, and then they ate the finest food. ⁴ It was necessary for the oppressors to suffer relentless need, while your people saw how their enemies were being tormented.

^5 (B)When terrible, fierce snakes attacked your people and were killing them with their poison, you did not remain angry long enough to destroy your people. ⁶ This trouble lasted for only a little while, as a warning. Then you gave them a healing symbol, the bronze snake, to remind them of what your Law requires. ⁷ If a person looked at that symbol, he was cured of the snakebite—not by what he saw, but by you, the savior of all mankind. ⁸ By doing this, you also convinced our enemies that you are the one who rescues people from every evil. ⁹ Our enemies died from the bites of locusts and flies; no way was found to cure them, because they deserved to be punished by such creatures. ¹⁰ But even poisonous snakes could not overcome your people, because you had mercy, helped them, and cured them. ¹¹ They were bitten so that they would remember your commands, but they were quickly rescued, in order to keep them from forgetting you completely and depriving themselves of your kindness. ¹² No medicine or ointment cured them. They were restored to health by your word, O Lord, the word which heals all humanity. ¹³ You have power over life and death; you can bring a person to the brink of death and back again. ¹⁴ A wicked person may kill someone, but cannot bring the dead person back to life or rescue a soul imprisoned in the world of the dead.

Disastrous Storms Hit Egypt

¹⁵ No one can possibly escape from you. ¹⁶ Look at those ungodly people: they refused to recognize you as God, so you punished them with your great power. They were overtaken by terrible storms of rain and hail and were completely destroyed by fire. ¹⁷ The most amazing thing was that the fire burned all the more fiercely in the water, which usually puts fire out. All the forces of nature fight to defend those who are righteous. ¹⁸ At one point the flames died down, so that they wouldn't destroy the creatures sent to punish the ungodly. Those people had to learn that they were being overtaken by your judgment. ¹⁹ But at another point, when surrounded by water, the flames burned more fiercely than fire had ever burned before, and so destroyed the crops on the land where those unrighteous people lived.

The Israelites Receive Manna to Eat

^20 (C)But this disaster did not strike your people. Instead, you gave them the food of angels. From heaven you sent down bread that was ready to eat, and they did not have to prepare it. The food you gave delighted everyone, no matter what his taste. ²¹ All this showed how lovingly you care for your children. That food satisfied the desire of everyone who ate it; it was changed to suit each person's taste. ²² It was food that under normal circumstances would vanish away like snow or ice, but now it did not melt even in the fire. This was meant to teach your people that the same fire that was destroying their enemies' crops during the heavy downpour of rain and hail ²³ held back its power, so that your own righteous people might have food.

²⁴ You created the universe; it is at your command. All creation uses its power to punish unrighteous people, but it becomes mild and kind to those who put their trust in you. ²⁵ Creation assumed all kinds of forms to show how you provide generously for all who pray to you.^{[a] 26} This happened so that the people whom you loved, O Lord, might learn that they are not fed by what they can grow. It is your word that maintains those who put their trust in you. ²⁷ The food that was not destroyed by the fire melted when the first ray of sunlight warmed it. ²⁸ This was to teach us that we must get up before daybreak to give you thanks, and pray as the sun comes up. ²⁹ But an ungrateful person's hope will melt away like frost, and drain away like water that is not being used.

Terror Strikes the Egyptians at Night

17 O Lord, your acts of judgment are marvelous and hard to explain; that is why people who had not been taught about them went astray. ² When lawless people imagined that they had your holy nation in their power, they were themselves imprisoned in a long night of darkness. They lay in their own houses, shut off from your eternal care. ³ They thought that their sins had been secret and unnoticed, shielded from view by a dark curtain of forgetfulness, but now they were horribly afraid, confused, and terrified by ghostly forms. ⁴ Not even the dark corners where they lay could protect them from fear. They were surrounded by horrible noises; grim ghosts with gloomy faces appeared before their eyes. ⁵ No fire had power to give them light, and the brilliant stars could do nothing to relieve that deathly darkness. ⁶ There was only a dreadful fire, lit by no human hand, that shone on them, and in their terror they believed that the real world was even worse than the things they imagined. ⁷ The illusions produced by their magic tricks were put to shame, and all the wisdom they had boasted of came to nothing. ⁸ They had claimed they could drive away all the fears and illnesses of sick minds, but now they themselves were sick with silly, groundless fears. ⁹ Even though nothing dangerous had actually happened, they were terrified by hissing snakes and animals advancing on them. ¹⁰ And so they died, shaking with fear, afraid even to open their eyes, yet unable to keep them shut.

¹¹ Wickedness is cowardly in itself and stands self-condemned.^[b] Someone with a guilty conscience will always imagine things to be worse than they really are. ¹² Fear is nothing but the failure to use the help that reason gives. ¹³ When you lack the confidence to rely on reason, you give in to the fears caused by ignorance.

¹⁴ All night long those people slept the same restless sleep, even though the night held no power over them, since it came from the powerless depths of the world of the dead. ¹⁵ They were chased by hideous forms and lay paralyzed as they surrendered themselves to the sudden, unexpected fear that came over them. ¹⁶ People would suddenly collapse and lie locked in the chains of their own fear. ¹⁷ Farmers, shepherds, and laborers out in the countryside were captured by the same inevitable fate and bound in the darkness by the same invisible chain. ^18-19 They were panic-stricken by the sighing of the wind or by the singing of birds in the trees or by the roar of rushing water or by the rumble of falling rock or by the sound of unseen creatures running about or by the savage roaring of wild animals or by the echoes from the mountains. ²⁰ In the full light of day, the rest of the world went about its business undisturbed. ²¹ Only those people were covered by this heavy night, a foretaste of the darkness of death that was waiting for them. They were a burden to themselves that was even heavier than the darkness.

Light Shines on the Israelites

18 ^(D)Yet all the while a brilliant light was shining for your holy people. Their enemies heard their voices, but couldn't see them. They envied the good fortune of your people, who were not suffering. ² Those enemies could at least be thankful that the people they had wronged were not taking vengeance on them now, and so they begged them to leave.^[c]

³ Then you guided your people as they traveled through a country they did not know. You guided them with a pillar of fire. It was like a sun that would not harm them on that glorious journey. ⁴ But their enemies, who were not allowed to see the light, deserved to be prisoners in darkness, because they had made prisoners of your people. And it was through your people that the eternal light of the Law was going to be given to the world.

The Death of the Egyptian First-Born

⁵ When your enemies were carrying out their resolve to kill the babies of your holy people, there was one child who was abandoned but later rescued. Then you punished your enemies by killing a great number of their own children. You drowned their whole army at one time in the rushing waters. ⁶ But our ancestors had been told in advance of what would happen that night, so that they would be cheered and encouraged by confident trust in your promises to them. ⁷ Your people knew that you would rescue the righteous nation and destroy their enemies. ⁸ With the same act you punished our enemies and did us the glorious honor of calling us to yourself.

⁹ During all this time devout people from this righteous nation were secretly offering sacrifices, giving their word to each other that they would keep God's law and share each other's blessings and dangers. Already they were chanting those ancient hymns of praise. ¹⁰ But their enemies' pitiful cries of grief echoed everywhere, as they mourned for their dead children. ¹¹ Masters suffered the same punishment as their slaves; the king endured the same loss as the common people. ¹² There were too many dead bodies to count. There were not enough people left to bury them all. In a single moment their dearest children died; all of them met death in the same way. ¹³ These people had paid no attention to any warning, but relied instead on their magical powers. But when their first-born sons were killed, then they recognized that Israel was God's son.

¹⁴ The short night was half over, and all was quiet and peaceful, ¹⁵ when suddenly your threats were carried out! An invincible word of judgment sped from your royal throne in heaven, straight down to that doomed land. It came like a soldier in fierce attack, ¹⁶ carrying out your firm command with a fearful weapon, standing with feet on the ground and head touching the sky, filling the land with death. ¹⁷ At that moment the people who were about to die had terrible nightmares and were seized by sudden fear. ¹⁸ All over the land they lay half-dead and let it be known why they were dying. ¹⁹ They knew why they were dying, because their horrible dreams had told them.

Aaron's Prayer Saves the Israelites from Death

^20 (E)Death also came to the righteous nation, for an epidemic struck many of them while they were in the desert, but your anger did not last long. ²¹ There was a certain blameless man who quickly took action to defend them. Acting as their priest, Aaron offered prayers and burned the incense used in asking forgiveness of sins. With prayers and incense as his weapons, he withstood your anger and ended the disaster. By doing this he proved that he was your servant. ²² He overcame the bitter difficulty,^[d] but not by his own strength or by military force. Instead, he used prayer to stop the punishment, appealing to the promises you solemnly gave to our ancestors. ²³ Dead bodies were already lying in piles, but he stepped in to hold your anger back and to keep it from harming those who were left alive. ²⁴ He wore a long robe decorated with symbols of the universe. In honor of our ancestors he wore four rows of engraved stones on his chest, and your own majesty was represented by the ornament on his turban. ²⁵ The Angel of Death was afraid of these things, and gave up. It was only a slight experience of your wrath, but it was enough.

The Suicidal Stupidity of the Egyptians

19 But the godless continued to feel your pitiless anger until the very end. You knew what they would do before they did it. ² You knew that even though they let your people go and made them leave quickly, they would change their minds and pursue them. ^3-4 While the Egyptians were still mourning at the graves of their dead, they forgot why all this had happened, and they foolishly decided that the people they had begged to leave were runaways. So they chased after them. They were led into this as part of the punishment they deserved, so that they would suffer the rest of the torments they were due to receive. ⁵ They were to meet a strange death, while your people continued on their miraculous journey.

God Guides and Protects His People

⁶ The whole nature of the universe was changed at your command so that your people would not be harmed. ⁷ They saw the cloud over their camp and dry land where water had been. There was a grass-covered plain between the stormy waves of the Red Sea, making it easy for them to cross over. ⁸ All your people, under your protection, saw this miracle and went across. ⁹ They pranced about like horses let out to pasture; they skipped about like lambs and praised you, Lord, for saving them. ¹⁰ They still remembered what life had been like when they were slaves—how the earth bred gnats instead of cattle, how the river produced huge numbers of frogs instead of fish. ^11-12 Later, when they desperately wanted better food, quails came up from the sea to satisfy their hunger. The quail was a bird they had never seen before.

The Punishment of the Egyptians

¹³ But violent thunder gave warning of the punishment that was coming on those sinners. They suffered a well-deserved punishment for their great wickedness. No nation had ever hated strangers so bitterly. ¹⁴ Other people had been known to refuse welcome to strangers who came to them, but these people made slaves of those who were their guests and who had shown them kindness. ¹⁵ Every nation will be punished if it does not welcome foreigners, ¹⁶ but these people, who had earlier welcomed the foreigners with happy celebrations and treated them as equals, later made them suffer cruelly. ¹⁷ These people were also struck with blindness, like the men of Sodom who came to the door of that righteous man Lot. They found themselves in total darkness, as each one groped around to find his own door.

God's Miraculous Power

¹⁸ On a harp each string keeps its own pitch, but each sound can be combined with others to make different melodies. That is how it was in those days, when the very elements entered into new combinations. Look at what happened! ¹⁹ Land animals took to the water, and swimming creatures came up on the land. ²⁰ Fire burned even in water, which could not put it out. ²¹ And yet the flames could not burn the flesh of the perishable creatures walking in them and did not melt that heavenly food that would ordinarily have melted like frost.

²² Lord, you have made your people great—glorious in all respects. You have never neglected them. You have given them help, always, everywhere.

Water from the Rock^(A)

17 ^(B)The whole Israelite community left the desert of Sin, moving from one place to another at the command of the Lord. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there to drink.

^2 (A)There was no water where they camped, so the people gathered around Moses and Aaron ³ and complained: “It would have been better if we had died in front of the Lord's Tent along with the other Israelites. ⁴ Why have you brought us out into this wilderness? Just so that we can die here with our animals? ⁵ Why did you bring us out of Egypt into this miserable place where nothing will grow? There's no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates. There is not even any water to drink!” ⁶ Moses and Aaron moved away from the people and stood at the entrance of the Tent. They bowed down with their faces to the ground, and the dazzling light of the Lord's presence appeared to them.

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ⁸ “Take the stick that is in front of the Covenant Box, and then you and Aaron assemble the whole community. There in front of them all speak to that rock over there, and water will gush out of it. In this way you will bring water out of the rock for the people, for them and their animals to drink.” ⁹ Moses went and got the stick, as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁰ He and Aaron assembled the whole community in front of the rock, and Moses said, “Listen, you rebels! Do we have to get water out of this rock for you?” ^11 (B)Then Moses raised the stick and struck the rock twice with it, and a great stream of water gushed out, and all the people and animals drank.

¹² But the Lord reprimanded Moses and Aaron. He said, “Because you did not have enough faith to acknowledge my holy power before the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land that I promised to give them.”

¹³ This happened at Meribah,^[a] where the people of Israel complained against the Lord and where he showed them that he is holy.