53. And He led them on safely and in confident trust, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. [Exod. 14:27, 28.]
54. And He brought them to His holy border, the border of [Canaan] His sanctuary, even to this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.
55. He drove out the nations also before [Israel] and allotted their land as a heritage, measured out and partitioned; and He made the tribes of Israel to dwell in the tents of those dispossessed.
56. Yet they tempted and provoked and rebelled against the Most High God and kept not His testimonies.
57. But they turned back and dealt unfaithfully and treacherously like their fathers; they were twisted like a warped and deceitful bow [that will not respond to the archer's aim].
58. For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [for idol worship] and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59. When God heard this, He was full of [holy] wrath; and He utterly rejected Israel, greatly abhorring and loathing [her ways],
60. So that He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent in which He had dwelt among men [and never returned to it again],
61. And delivered His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity, and His glory into the hands of the foe (the Philistines). [I Sam. 4:21.]
62. He gave His people over also to the sword and was wroth with His heritage [Israel]. [I Sam. 4:10.]
63. The fire [of war] devoured their young men, and their bereaved virgins were not praised in a wedding song.
64. Their priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation [for the bodies came not back from the scene of battle, and the widow of Phinehas also died that day]. [I Sam. 4:11, 19, 20.]
65. Then the Lord awakened as from sleep, as a strong man whose consciousness of power is heightened by wine.
66. And He smote His adversaries in the back [as they fled]; He put them to lasting shame and reproach.
67. Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle had been accustomed to stand].
68. But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel's leader], Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].
69. And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens] and like the earth which He established forever.
70. He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; [I Sam. 16:11, 12.]
71. From tending the ewes that had their young He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob His people, of Israel His inheritance. [II Sam. 7:7, 8.]
72. So [David] was their shepherd with an upright heart; he guided them by the discernment and skillfulness [which controlled] his hands.