1A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, my people, to my instruction; incline your ear to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour forth riddles from of old.
3things that we have heard and known, and that our fathers have recounted to us.
4We will not conceal them from their children, recounting to the coming generation the praises of Yahweh, and his might, and his wonders that he has done.
5He established a testimony in Jacob, and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children,
6so that the coming generation might know—children yet to be born—that they might rise up and recount them to their children,
7and set their hope in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments;
8and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9The sons of Ephraim, armed and shooting the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10They did not keep the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law.
11They forgot his deeds and his wonders that he had shown them.
12Before their fathers he did wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
13He split the sea and led them through, and made the waters stand like a heap.
14He guided them with the cloud by day, and all the night with the light of fire.
15He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly, as from the deeps.
16He brought streams out of the crag, and made water go down like rivers.
17Yet they went on sinning still further against him, rebelling against the Most High in the parched land.
18And they tested God in their heart by asking food for their appetite.
19They spoke against God; they said, “Can God set a table in the wilderness?”
20“Look, he struck the rock and waters gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?”
21Therefore Yahweh heard and was furious; a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose against Israel,
22because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.
23Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of the heavens,
24and rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.
25Each man ate the bread of the mighty ones; he sent them provision to the full.
26He let loose the east wind in the heavens, and by his power drove the south wind.
27He rained meat upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas,
28and made them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.
29So they ate and were well filled, and he brought them what they craved.
30They had not turned away from their craving—their food was still in their mouths—
31then the anger of God rose against them; he slew among their sturdiest, and he brought down the young men of Israel.
32In spite of all this they still sinned, and did not believe in his wondrous works.
33So he brought their days to an end in futility, and their years in sudden terror.
34When he slew them, they would seek him; they would turn back and seek God earnestly.
35They remembered that God was their rock, and El Most High their redeemer.
36But they deceived him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him.
37Their heart was not steadfast toward him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.
38Yet he, being compassionate, would atone for iniquity and not destroy; time and again he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath.
39He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not return.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the wasteland!
41Again and again they tested God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42They did not remember his hand, the day he redeemed them from the foe,
43how he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
44He turned their rivers to blood, and their streams, they could not drink of them.
45He sent among them swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that destroyed them.
46He gave their produce to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
47He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
48He handed their cattle over to the hail, and their livestock to the bolts of lightning.
49He let loose against them the heat of his anger, fury and indignation and distress, a deployment of angels of disaster.
50He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare their life from death, but handed their lives over to the pestilence.
51He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
52Then he set out his people like sheep, and led them like a flock in the wilderness.
53He led them safely, and they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies.
54He brought them to his holy territory, to this mountain his right hand had acquired.
55He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them by lot as an inheritance, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56Yet they tested and rebelled against God Most High, and did not keep his testimonies.
57They turned back and were treacherous like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow.
58They provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their carved images.
59God heard and was furious, and he utterly rejected Israel.
60He abandoned the dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among humankind.
61He gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the foe.
62He handed his people over to the sword, and he was enraged against his inheritance.
63Fire devoured his young men, and his virgins were not praised in song.
64His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.
65Then the Lord awoke as one asleep, like a warrior shouting from wine.
66He struck his foes back; he put on them everlasting reproach.
67He rejected the tent of Joseph, and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth he founded it forever.
70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds.
71From following the nursing ewes he brought him, to shepherd Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and with the skill of his hands he guided them.
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