| 1 | {An instruction. Of Asaph.} Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. |
| 2 | I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old, |
| 3 | Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us: |
| 4 | We will not hide [them] from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done. |
| 5 | For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; |
| 6 | That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children, |
| 7 | And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of �God, but observe his commandments; |
| 8 | And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with �God. |
| 9 | The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle. |
| 10 | They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; |
| 11 | And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them. |
| 12 | In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan. |
| 13 | He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap; |
| 14 | And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire. |
| 15 | He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly; |
| 16 | And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. |
| 17 | Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert; |
| 18 | And they tempted �God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust; |
| 19 | And they spoke against God: they said, Is �God able to prepare a table in the wilderness? |
| 20 | Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people? |
| 21 | Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel: |
| 22 | Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation; |
| 23 | Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens, |
| 24 | And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens. |
| 25 | Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full. |
| 26 | He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind; |
| 27 | And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas, |
| 28 | And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations: |
| 29 | And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them. |
| 30 | They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths, |
| 31 | When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. |
| 32 | For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works; |
| 33 | And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. |
| 34 | When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after �God; |
| 35 | And they remembered that God was their rock, and �God, the Most High, their redeemer. |
| 36 | But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue; |
| 37 | For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. |
| 38 | But he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed [them] not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury: |
| 39 | And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again. |
| 40 | How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! |
| 41 | And they turned again and tempted �God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel. |
| 42 | They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor, |
| 43 | How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan; |
| 44 | And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink; |
| 45 | He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them; |
| 46 | And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust; |
| 47 | He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones; |
| 48 | And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts. |
| 49 | He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress,—a mission of angels of woes. |
| 50 | He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; |
| 51 | And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham. |
| 52 | And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock; |
| 53 | And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies. |
| 54 | And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased; |
| 55 | And he drove out the nations before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. |
| 56 | But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies, |
| 57 | And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow. |
| 58 | And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. |
| 59 | God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: |
| 60 | And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men, |
| 61 | And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor; |
| 62 | And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance: |
| 63 | The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song; |
| 64 | Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. |
| 65 | Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine; |
| 66 | And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach. |
| 67 | And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, |
| 68 | But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved; |
| 69 | And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever. |
| 70 | And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: |
| 71 | From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. |
| 72 | And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands. |