Many times did he rescue them, but they kept rebelling and scheming and were brought low by their own guilt.
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers.
They provoked him by their actions, and a plague broke out among them.
Because they rebelled against God’s word, and scorned the counsel of the Most High,
But my people did not listen to my words; Israel would not submit to me.
the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Midianites oppress you? Yet when you cried out to me, and I saved you from their power,
New gods were their choice; then war was at the gates. No shield was to be found, no spear, among forty thousand in Israel!
For they would come up with their livestock, and their tents would appear as thick as locusts. They would be too many to count when they came into the land to lay it waste.
Israel was reduced to utter poverty by Midian, and so the Israelites cried out to the Lord.
Not a single smith was to be found anywhere in Israel, for the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.”