^17 (A)They sacrificed to demons, who were not God,
^(B)To gods whom they have not known,
^(C)New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not know.

¹⁸ Even when they ^(A)made for themselves
A calf of cast metal
And said, ‘This is your ^[a]god
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great blasphemies,
^19 (B)You, in Your great compassion,
Did not abandon them in the wilderness;
^(C)The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day,
To guide them on their way,
Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.
²⁰ Instead, ^(D)You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,
And You gave them water for their thirst.
²¹ Indeed, for ^(E)forty years You provided for them in the wilderness and they were not lacking;
Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell up.