1 H ear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

3 W hich we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 W e will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

5 F or he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

6 t hat the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

7 t hat they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments,

8 a nd 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.

9 T he children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10 T hey didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

11 T hey forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.

12 H e did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 H e split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

14 I n the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

15 H e split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

16 H e brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 Y et they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18 T hey tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

19 Y es, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20 B ehold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?”

21 T herefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

22 b ecause they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.

23 Y et he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

24 H e rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

25 M an ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

26 H e caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

27 H e rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

28 H e let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.

29 S o they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

30 T hey didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

31 w hen the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their fattest, and struck down the young men of Israel.

32 F or all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

33 T herefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

34 W hen he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

35 T hey remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

36 B ut they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

37 F or their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

38 B ut 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.

39 H e remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

40 H ow often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

41 T hey turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42 T hey didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

43 h ow he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

44 h e turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

45 H e sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 H e gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

47 H e destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

48 H e gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49 H e threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

50 H e made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

51 a nd struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52 B ut he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 H e led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 H e brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

55 H e 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.

56 Y et they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies;

57 b ut turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58 F or they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

59 W hen God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

60 S o that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

61 a nd delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.

62 H e also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

63 F ire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

64 T heir priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.

65 T hen the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

66 H e struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

67 M oreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68 B ut chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

69 H e built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

70 H e also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

71 f rom following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

72 S o he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.