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1LISTEN, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter hidden mysteries, things from of old—
3 things we have heard and known,
things our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
we will tell the generation to come
the praises of the Lord,
His power, and the wonderful deeds He has performed.
5 He established a decree in Jacob,
and appointed the law in Israel,
which He commanded our forefathers
to teach to their children;
6 so the next generation would know them—
the children yet to be born,
and in turn they would teach their children.
7 Then they would put their confidence in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but obey His commandments.
8 They would not be like their forefathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose hearts were not loyal,
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of the battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant,
and refused to walk according to His law.
11 They forgot what He had done,
and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 He performed miracles in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and had them pass through;
He made the waters stand firm like a wall.
14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud,
and throughout the night with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them abundant drink, as out of the great depths.
16 He brought forth streams out of the stone,
and made waters to flow down like rivers.
17 But they sinned still more against Him,
rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
18 They deliberately tested God
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He struck the rock and water gushed out,
and the stream flowed abundantly.
But can He give food also?
Can He provide meat for His people?”
21 When the Lord heard this, He was furious;
so a fire broke out against Jacob,
and His anger rose up against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God,
or trust in His deliverance.
23 Yet He had commanded the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down manna on them to eat,
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Men ate the bread of angels;
He sent them food in abundance.
26 He made the east wind to blow in the heavens;
and He drove in the south wind by His power .
27 He rained down meat on them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28 He made them fall down in the midst of their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were well filled,
for He gave them what they craved.
30 But before they satisfied their craving,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God rose against them,
and He killed the strongest among them;
He struck down the choice young men of Israel.
32 Yet in spite of all this, they kept on sinning,
and did not believe in His wonders.
33 So He ended their days in futility,
and their years in sudden terror.
34 Whenever God killed them, then they sought Him,
and they repented and sought earnestly after Him.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
and the Most High God, their Redeemer.
36 But then they flattered Him with their mouths,
and they lied to Him with their tongues;
37 for their hearts were not loyal to Him,
nor were they faithful to His covenant.
38 But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity,
and did not destroy them.
Indeed, many times He restrained His anger,
and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were but flesh—
a passing breeze that does not return again.
40 How often they rebelled Him in the wilderness,
and grieved Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested God,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power—
the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
43 when He displayed His signs in Egypt,
and His wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
and the fruit of their labour to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
and their flocks to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed His fierce anger against them,
His wrath, indignation, and trouble—
a company of destroying angels.
50 He cleared a path for His anger,
He did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.
52 But He led His own people out like sheep,
and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them safely, so they did not fear;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of His holy land,
to the mountain that His right hand had purchased.
55 He drove out the nations before them,
and divided their lands by measure for an inheritance,
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God,
and they did not obey His decrees.
57 Like their fathers they were treacherous and faithless;
they gave way like a faulty bow.
58 They enraged Him with their high places,
and aroused His jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, He was furious;
and He completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent He had set up among men.
61 He delivered His strength into captivity,
His splendour into the hand of the enemy.
62 He gave His people over to the sword;
He was filled with wrath against His inheritance.
63 Their young men were consumed by fire,
and their maidens had no weddings song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior wakes after the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back His enemies;
He put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph,
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but He chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loves.
69 He built His sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that He established forever.
70 He chose David His servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the ewes nursing their young,
He brought him to be shepherd
over His people Jacob,
of Israel His inheritance.
72 He shepherded them with integrity of heart,
and led them with skilful hands.