The LORD’S Wonderful Works in Behalf of Israel.

1O give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the people.

2Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;

Speak of all His wonderful acts and devoutly praise them.

3Glory in His holy name;

Let the hearts of those who seek and require the LORD [as their most essential need] rejoice.

4Seek and deeply long for the LORD and His strength [His power, His might];

Seek and deeply long for His face and His presence continually.

5Remember [with awe and gratitude] the wonderful things which He has done,

His amazing deeds and the judgments uttered by His mouth [on His enemies, as in Egypt],

6O you offspring of Abraham, His servant,

O you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!

7He is the LORD our God;

His judgments are in all the earth.

8He has remembered His covenant forever,

The word which He commanded and established to a [a]thousand generations,

9The covenant which He made with Abraham,

And His sworn oath to Isaac,

10Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute,

To Israel as an everlasting covenant,

11Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan

As the measured portion of your inheritance.”

12When there were only a few men in number,

Very few [in fact], and strangers in it;

13And they wandered from one nation to another,

From one kingdom to another people,

14He allowed no man to oppress them;

He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying,

15“Do not touch My anointed ones,

And do My prophets no harm.”

16And He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt];

He [b]cut off every source of bread.

17He sent a man before them,

Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

18His feet they hurt with shackles;

[c]He was put in chains of iron,

19Until the time that his word [of prophecy regarding his brothers] came true,

The word of the LORD tested and refined him.

20The king sent and released him,

The ruler of the peoples [of Egypt], and set him free.

21He made Joseph lord of his house

And ruler of all his possessions,

22To imprison his princes at his will,

That he might teach his elders wisdom.

23Israel also came into Egypt;

Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

24There the LORD greatly increased [the number of] His people,

And made them more powerful than their enemies.

25He turned the heart [of the Egyptians] to hate His people,

To deal craftily with His servants.

26He sent Moses His servant,

And Aaron, whom He had chosen.

27They exhibited His wondrous signs among them,

Great miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).

28He sent [thick, oppressive] darkness and made the land dark;

And Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His words.

29He turned Egypt’s waters into blood

And caused their fish to die.

30Their land swarmed with frogs,

Even in the chambers of their kings.

31He spoke, and there came swarms of flies

And gnats in all their territory.

32He gave them hail for rain,

With flaming fire in their land.

33He struck their vines also and their fig trees,

And shattered the [ice-laden] trees of their territory.

34He spoke, and the [migratory] locusts came,

And the young locusts, even without number,

35And ate up all the vegetation in their land,

And devoured the fruit of their ground.

36He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,

The first fruits and chief substance of all their strength.

37He brought the sons of Israel out [of Egypt] with silver and gold,

And among their tribes there was not one who stumbled.

38Egypt was glad when they departed,

For the dread and fear of them had fallen on the Egyptians.

39The LORD spread a cloud as a covering [by day],

And a fire to illumine the night.

40The Israelites asked, and He brought quail,

And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

41He opened the rock and water flowed out;

It ran in the dry places like a river.

42For He remembered His holy word

To Abraham His servant;

43He brought out His people with joy,

And His chosen ones with a joyful shout,

44He gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan],

So that they would possess the fruits of those peoples’ labor,

45So that they might observe His precepts

And keep His laws [obediently accepting and honoring and valuing them].

Praise the LORD! (Hallelujah!)

[a] 8 There were twenty-six recorded generations from Adam to Moses. The ancient rabbis took “thousand” here very literally and maintained that God originally planned to give the Law to the thousandth generation, but He foresaw that they would be wicked, so He declined to create 974 generations and gave the Law to the twenty-sixth generation (Moses) instead.
[b] 16 Lit broke the whole rod of, referring to the fact that bread was stored as ring-shaped loaves on a rod. If the rod was broken, the loaves fell off and were lost or ruined.
[c] 18 Lit his soul came into.