Read the Bible

¹ Give thanks to the Lord,
proclaim his greatness;
    tell the nations what he has done.
² Sing praise to the Lord;
    tell the wonderful things he has done.
³ Be glad that we belong to him;
    let all who worship him rejoice.
⁴ Go to the Lord for help;
    and worship him continually.^5-6 You descendants of Abraham, his servant;
    you descendants of Jacob, the man he chose:
remember the miracles that God performed
    and the judgments that he gave.

⁷ The Lord is our God;
    his commands are for all the world.
⁸ He will keep his covenant forever,
    his promises for a thousand generations.
^9 (b)He will keep the agreement he made with Abraham
    and his promise to Isaac.
^10 (c)The Lord made a covenant with Jacob,
    one that will last forever.
¹¹ "I will give you the land of Canaan," he said.
    "It will be your own possession."

¹² God's people were few in number,
    strangers in the land of Canaan.
¹³ They wandered from country to country,
    from one kingdom to another.
^14 (d)But God let no one oppress them;
    to protect them, he warned the kings:
¹⁵ "Don't harm my chosen servants;
    do not touch my prophets."

^16 (e)The Lord sent famine to their country
    and took away all their food.
^17 (f)But he sent a man ahead of them,
    Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
^18 (g)His feet were kept in chains,
    and an iron collar was around his neck,
¹⁹     until what he had predicted came true.
The word of the Lord proved him right.
^20 (h)Then the king of Egypt had him released;
    the ruler of nations set him free.
^21 (i)He put him in charge of his government
    and made him ruler over all the land,
²²     with power over the king's officials
    and authority to instruct his advisers.

^23 (j)Then Jacob went to Egypt
    and settled in that country.
^24 (k)The Lord gave many children to his people
    and made them stronger than their enemies.
²⁵ He made the Egyptians hate his people
    and treat his servants with deceit.

^26 (l)Then he sent his servant Moses,
    and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They did God's mighty acts
    and performed miracles in Egypt.
^28 (m)God sent darkness on the country,
    but the Egyptians did not obey^[a] his command.
^29 (n)He turned their rivers into blood
    and killed all their fish.
^30 (o)Their country was overrun with frogs;
    even the palace was filled with them.
^31 (p)God commanded, and flies and gnats
    swarmed throughout the whole country.
^32 (q)He sent hail and lightning on their land
    instead of rain;
³³ he destroyed their grapevines and fig trees
    and broke down all the trees.
^34 (r)He commanded, and the locusts came,
    countless millions of them;
³⁵ they ate all the plants in the land;
    they ate all the crops.
^36 (s)He killed the first-born sons
    of all the families of Egypt.

^37 (t)Then he led the Israelites out;
    they carried silver and gold,
    and all of them were healthy and strong.
³⁸ The Egyptians were afraid of them
    and were glad when they left.
^39 (u)God put a cloud over his people
    and a fire at night to give them light.
^40 (v)They^[b] asked, and he sent quails;
    he gave them food from heaven to satisfy them.
^41 (w)He opened a rock, and water gushed out,
    flowing through the desert like a river.
⁴² He remembered his sacred promise
    to Abraham his servant.

⁴³ So he led his chosen people out,
    and they sang and shouted for joy.
^44 (x)He gave them the lands of other peoples
    and let them take over their fields,
⁴⁵ so that his people would obey his laws
    and keep all his commands.

Praise the Lord!