1. Therefore, the enemies of your people deserved to be punished and tormented by swarms of the very same monsters.
2. In contrast to their punishment, you blessed your people when they were famished. You prepared for them a tasty delicacy—a feast of quail!
3. You did so in order that the enemies of your people, who were also hungry, wouldn’t be able to stomach food because of the ugliness of those creatures that you had sent against them. You also did so in order that your people, who were in need only for a little while, might share in a novel meal.
4. The enemies of your people, who oppressed them like tyrants, were fated to experience a famine that never seemed to end. But all that was necessary for your people was to show them how their enemies were to be tortured.
5. Even when the terrible fury of beasts overwhelmed your people and they were perishing from the stings of coiled serpents, your anger didn’t last long.
6. They were terrified only for a little while as a warning, since they had the sign of their salvation as a reminder of the command of your Law.
7. Those who turned to that sign were saved not by what they saw but by you, the savior of all.
8. In this way, you persuaded our enemies that you are the only one who rescues people from every evil.
9. Our enemies died when they were bitten by locusts and flies. There was no healing that was able to keep them alive. They deserved to be punished by those insects.
10. Yet not even the fangs of poisonous snakes were able to overcome your children, because your mercy traveled along with them and healed them.
11. You did sting them in order to remind them of the things that you had told them. But you came to their rescue quickly so that they might not fall into a deep forgetfulness of your goodwill toward them.
12. It wasn’t any herb or ointment that healed them but your word alone, Lord, which heals everything.
13. You have power over life and death. You lead people down to the gates of hell, and you bring them back up again.