Acts 13:18

³⁶This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

¹⁶For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.

³⁹to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, ⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’⁴¹They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. ⁴²But God turned away and gave them up to serve the army of the sky,^[+] as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ⁴³You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship, so I will carry you awaybeyond Babylon.’

³⁵The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

²¹I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. ²²At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath. ²³When the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice. ²⁴You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

¹³They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel, ¹⁴but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. ¹⁵He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. ¹⁶They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, the LORD’s saint. ¹⁷The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. ¹⁸A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. ¹⁹They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. ²⁰Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. ²¹They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, ²²wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. ²³Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them. ²⁴Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word, ²⁵but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to the LORD’s voice. ²⁶Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness, ²⁷that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations, and scatter them in the lands. ²⁸They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. ²⁹Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.

¹⁶“But they and our fathers behaved proudly, hardened their neck, didn’t listen to your commandments, ¹⁷and refused to obey. They weren’t mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn’t forsake them. ¹⁸Yes, when they had made themselves a molded calf, and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed awful blasphemies, ¹⁹yet you in your manifold mercies didn’t forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud didn’t depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go. ²⁰You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

²¹“Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes didn’t grow old, and their feet didn’t swell.

¹⁰So I caused them to go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. ¹¹I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them. ¹²Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

¹³“‘“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them. ¹⁴But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. ¹⁵Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, ¹⁶because they rejected my ordinances, and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. ¹⁷Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn’t destroy them. I didn’t make a full end of them in the wilderness.

²⁵“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? ²⁶You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

⁸Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, ⁹when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work. ¹⁰Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “They are a people who err in their heart. They have not known my ways.” ¹¹Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”