¹Hear my teaching , my people .

Turn your ears to the words of my mouth .

²I will open my mouth in a parable .

I will utter dark sayings of old ,

³which we have heard and known ,

and our fathers have told us .

⁴We will not hide them from their children ,

telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD ,

his strength , and his wondrous deeds that he has done .

⁵For he established a covenant in Jacob ,

and appointed a teaching in Israel ,

which he commanded our fathers,

that they should make them known to their children ;

⁶that the generation to come might know , even the children who should be born ;

who should arise and tell their children ,

⁷that they might set their hope in God ,

and not forget God ’s deeds ,

but keep his commandments ,

⁸and might not be as their fathers—

a stubborn and rebellious generation ,

a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal,

whose spirit was not steadfast with God .

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows ,

turned back in the day of battle .

¹⁰They didn’t keep God ’s covenant ,

and refused to walk in his law .

¹¹They forgot his doings ,

his wondrous deeds that he had shown them .

¹²He did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers,

in the land of Egypt , in the field of Zoan .

¹³He split the sea , and caused them to pass through .

He made the waters stand as a heap .

¹⁴In the daytime he also led them with a cloud ,

and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness ,

and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths .

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock ,

and caused waters to run down like rivers .

¹⁷Yet they still went on to sin against him ,

to rebel against the Most High in the desert .

¹⁸They tempted God in their heart

by asking food according to their desire .

¹⁹Yes, they spoke against God.

They said , “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness ?

²⁰Behold , he struck the rock , so that waters gushed out ,

and streams overflowed .

Can he give bread also ?

Will he provide meat for his people ?”

²¹Therefore the LORD heard , and was angry .

A fire was kindled against Jacob ,

anger also went up against Israel ,

²²because they didn’t believe in God ,

and didn’t trust in his salvation .

²³Yet he commanded the skies above ,

and opened the doors of heaven .

²⁴He rained down manna on them to eat,

and gave them food from the sky .

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels.

He sent them food to the full .

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the sky .

By his power he guided the south wind .

²⁷He also rained meat on them as the dust ,

winged birds as the sand of the seas .

²⁸He let them fall in the middle of their camp ,

around their habitations .

²⁹So they ate, and were well filled .

He gave them their own desire .

³⁰They didn’t turn from their cravings.

Their food was yet in their mouths ,

³¹when the anger of God went up against them ,

killed some of their strongest,

and struck down the young men of Israel .

³²For all this they still sinned ,

and didn’t believe in his wondrous works .

³³Therefore he consumed their days in vanity ,

and their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them , then they enquired after him .

They returned and sought God earnestly .

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock ,

the Most High God , their redeemer .

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth ,

and lied to him with their tongue .

³⁷For their heart was not right with him ,

neither were they faithful in his covenant .

³⁸But he , being merciful , forgave iniquity , and didn’t destroy them .

Yes, many times he turned his anger away ,

and didn’t stir up all his wrath .

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh ,

a wind that passes away , and doesn’t come again .

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness ,

and grieved him in the desert !

⁴¹They turned again and tempted God,

and provoked the Holy One of Israel .

⁴²They didn’t remember his hand ,

nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary ;

⁴³how he set his signs in Egypt ,

his wonders in the field of Zoan ,

⁴⁴he turned their rivers into blood ,

and their streams , so that they could not drink .

⁴⁵He sent amongst them swarms of flies , which devoured them ;

and frogs , which destroyed them .

⁴⁶He also gave their increase to the caterpillar ,

and their labour to the locust .

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail ,

their sycamore fig trees with frost .

⁴⁸He also gave over their livestock to the hail ,

and their flocks to hot thunderbolts .

⁴⁹He threw on them the fierceness of his anger ,

wrath , indignation , and trouble ,

and a band of angels of evil .

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger.

He didn’t spare their soul from death ,

but gave their life over to the pestilence ,

⁵¹and struck all the firstborn in Egypt ,

the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham .

⁵²But he led out his own people like sheep ,

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock .

⁵³He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid ,

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his sanctuary ,

to this mountain , which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He also drove out the nations before them ,

allotted them for an inheritance by line ,

and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God ,

and didn’t keep his testimonies ,

⁵⁷but turned back , and dealt treacherously like their fathers.

They were twisted like a deceitful bow .

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places ,

and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images .

⁵⁹When God heard this , he was angry ,

and greatly abhorred Israel ,

⁶⁰so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh ,

the tent which he placed amongst men,

⁶¹and delivered his strength into captivity ,

his glory into the adversary ’s hand .

⁶²He also gave his people over to the sword ,

and was angry with his inheritance .

⁶³Fire devoured their young men.

Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword ,

and their widows couldn’t weep .

⁶⁵Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep ,

like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine .

⁶⁶He struck his adversaries backward.

He put them to a perpetual reproach .

⁶⁷Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph ,

and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah ,

Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights ,

like the earth which he has established forever .

⁷⁰He also chose David his servant ,

and took him from the sheepfolds ;

⁷¹from following the ewes that have their young ,

he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob , his people ,

and Israel , his inheritance .

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart ,

and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands .