³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them,
³⁵ but they mixed with the nations,
and they learned to do what the nations did.
³⁶ They also served their idols,
and the idols became a snare for them.
³⁷ They also sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
³⁸ They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was polluted by their children’s blood,
³⁹ and they made themselves unclean by what they did.
They prostituted themselves by their actions.

⁴⁰ Therefore the Lord burned with anger against his people,
and he loathed the people who belonged to him.
⁴¹ So he handed them over to the nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
⁴² Then their enemies oppressed them,
and they had to submit to their power.
⁴³ Many times he delivered them,
but they deliberately rebelled,
and they sank down in their guilt.

⁴⁴ But he looked on them in their distress when he heard their outcry.
⁴⁵ So for their sake he remembered his covenant.
Because of his great mercy, he changed his course.
⁴⁶ Then he caused all their captors to have pity on them.

⁴⁷ Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations,
so that we may give thanks to your holy name and praise you confidently.

⁴⁸ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity,
and all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord.