¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable;[#Ps 49:4; Pr 1:6]

I will speak mysteries of old,

³which we have heard and known,

that our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children,

but tell the generation to come

the praises of the Lord ,

and His strength and the wonderful works that He has done.

⁵For He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which He commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

⁶that the generation to come might know them,

the children yet to be born,

that they may arise and declare them to their children,

⁷so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep His commandments;

⁸and that they may not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation that did not set its heart aright,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimites, being armed with bows,

turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep the covenant of God

and refused to walk in His law;

¹¹they forgot His works[#Ps 106:13]

and the wonders that He had shown them.

¹²In the sight of their fathers He performed marvelous wonders

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

¹³He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,[#Ex 14:21]

and He made the waters stand up like a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime He led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness

and gave them plenty to drink like the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock

and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷But they sinned still more against Him[#Isa 63:10]

by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tested God in their heart[#1Co 10:9]

by asking for the food they craved.

¹⁹Then they spoke against God, saying,

“Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

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

and the streams overflowed.

Can He give bread also?

Will He provide meat for His people?”

²¹Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath;

a fire was kindled against Jacob,

and anger also came up against Israel,

²²because they did not believe in God

and did not trust in His salvation.

²³Yet He had commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴and He rained down manna upon them to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵Men ate the bread of angels;[#Ps 103:20]

He sent them food in abundance.

²⁶He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by His power He directed the south wind.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust,

winged birds like the sand of the seas;

²⁸then He let them fall in the midst of their camp,

all around their dwellings.

²⁹So they ate and were well filled,

for He gave them their own desire.

³⁰They were not separated from their desire;

but while their food was still in their mouths,

³¹the wrath of God came upon them,[#Isa 10:16]

and He killed the strongest of them

and struck down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they still sinned,

and did not believe in His wondrous works.

³³Therefore their days did He consume like a breath,[#Nu 14:29, 35]

and their years in terror.

³⁴When He killed them, then they sought Him;

they turned back and sought earnestly for God.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock,[#Dt 32:4]

and the Most High God their Redeemer.

³⁶Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths,[#Isa 29:13; Eze 33:31]

and they lied to Him with their tongues;

³⁷for their heart was not steadfast toward Him,[#Ps 78:8; Ac 8:21]

nor were they faithful in His covenant.

³⁸But He, being full of compassion,

forgave their iniquity

and did not destroy them.

He often restrained His anger,

and did not stir up all His wrath;

³⁹for He remembered that they were but flesh,[#Ge 6:3]

a wind that passes away and does not return.

⁴⁰How often they provoked Him in the wilderness

and grieved Him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tested God,[#Nu 14:22]

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember His power,

nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

⁴³when He performed His signs in Egypt

and His wonders in the fields of Zoan,

⁴⁴and turned their rivers into blood,[#Ps 105:29]

so that they could not drink of their streams.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them,[#Ex 8:21–24]

and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper

and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave up their cattle to the hail

and their flocks to fiery lightning.

⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger,

wrath, indignation, and distress,

by sending angels of destruction.

⁵⁰He made a path for His anger;

He did not spare them from death,

but gave their lives over to the plague,

⁵¹and struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,

the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But He led forth His own people like sheep

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

⁵³He led them on safely, so that they were not afraid,[#Ex 14:19–20]

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to His holy border,

to the mountain which His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁵He cast out the nations before them,[#Ps 44:2]

and divided for them their tribal allotments,

and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God,

and did not keep His testimonies,

⁵⁷but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;[#Eze 20:27–28]

they turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked Him to anger with their high places

and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, He was filled with wrath

and greatly abhorred Israel,

⁶⁰so that He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh,

the tent where He dwelt among men,

⁶¹and delivered His strength to captivity[#Ps 132:8]

and His glory to the enemy’s hand.

⁶²He gave His people over to the sword,

and was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

⁶³The fire consumed their young men,

and their young women were not given in marriage.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword,[#1Sa 4:17]

and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep,[#Ps 44:23]

like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.

⁶⁶He routed His enemies back;[#1Sa 5:6]

He made them a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,

and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸but chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion which He loves.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the high heavens,

like the earth that He has established 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[#1Ki 9:4]

and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.