What is the context?
The prayer recalls the people rejecting the Law and killing prophets sent to turn them back to God. Oppression follows, but God hears their cries and gives deliverers. Once they have relief, they do evil again.
The pattern continues over many years. God warns them by His Spirit through the prophets, but they will not listen, and they come under the rule of other peoples.
Even then, the prayer gives thanks that God has not destroyed or abandoned them completely. The community now praying exists because His compassion has outlasted their repeated unfaithfulness.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry emphasizes that the prophets’ warnings came through God’s Spirit, while mercy remained the people’s hope. Gill traces the repeated rescues and the preservation of a people through conquest and exile. The prayer does not minimize judgment; it recognizes that judgment has not canceled every expression of God’s compassion.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Stephen returns to this pattern in Acts 7:35–53. He recalls the rejection of Moses, the golden calf and the persecution of the prophets, then confronts his hearers with the betrayal and killing of the Righteous One.
This is a connection through the same repeated rejection of God’s messengers, brought to its most serious point in the rejection of Christ. Remembering earlier failures is meant to lead to listening now, rather than assuming that knowing the history has already made the response faithful.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.