21. They forgot the God who saved them,who had done great things in Egypt,
22. miracles in the land of Hamand awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23. So he said he would destroy them –had not Moses, his chosen one,stood in the breach before himto keep his wrath from destroying them.
24. Then they despised the pleasant land;they did not believe his promise.
25. They grumbled in their tentsand did not obey the Lord.
26. So he swore to them with uplifted handthat he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27. make their descendants fall among the nationsand scatter them throughout the lands.
28. They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peorand ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
29. they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,and a plague broke out among them.
30. But Phinehas stood up and intervened,and the plague was checked.
31. This was credited to him as righteousnessfor endless generations to come.
32. By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,and trouble came to Moses because of them;