1My people, attend to my teaching: bend your ears to the words of my mouth,
2as I open my mouth in a poem on the riddling story of the past.
3What we have heard and known, and what our ancestors have told us,
4we will not hide from their children. We will tell to the next generation the praises and might of the Lord , and the wonders that he has done.
5He set up a testimony in Jacob, a law he appointed in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to make known to their children,
6that the next generation should know it, that the children yet to be born should arise and tell their children;
7that in God they might put their confidence, and not forget God’s works; but that they might keep his commandments,
8and not be like their ancestors, a generation defiant and stubborn, a generation with heart unsteady, and spirit unfaithful towards God.
9Ephraimites, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.
10They did not keep God’s covenant, they refused to walk in his law.
11They forgot what he had done, and the wonders he had shown them.
12He did wonders before their ancestors in the country of Zoan in Egypt.
13Through the sea which he split he brought them, making waters stand up like a heap;
14he led them by day with a cloud, all the night with a light of fire.
15From the rocks which he split in the wilderness, he gave them to drink as of ocean’s abundance.
16He brought streams out of the rock, and made water run down like rivers.
17Yet they still went on sinning against him, they defied the Most High in the desert.
18They willfully challenged God, demanding the food that they longed for.
19“Is God able,” such was their challenge, “to spread in the desert a table?
20From the rock that he struck there gushed water, and torrents that overflowed; but can he also give bread, or provide his people with meat?”
21When the Lord heard this, he was furious, and fire was kindled on Jacob, anger flared up against Israel.
22For they put no trust in God, no confidence in his help.
23So he summoned the clouds above; and, opening the doors of heaven,
24he rained manna upon them for food, and grain of heaven he gave them.
25Everyone ate the bread of angels; he sent them food to the full.
26He launched the east wind in the heavens, and guided the south by his power.
27He rained meat upon them like dust, winged bird like the sand of the sea.
28In the midst of their camp he dropped it, all around their tents.
29They ate and were more than filled; he had brought them the thing they desired.
30But the thing they desired became loathsome: while their food was still in their mouths,
31the wrath of God rose against them. He slew the stoutest among them, and laid low the young men of Israel.
32Yet for all this they sinned yet more, and refused to believe in his wonders.
33So he ended their days in a breath, and their years in sudden dismay.
34When he slew them, then they sought after him, they turned and sought God with diligence.
35They remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
36But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
37Their heart was not steady with him, they were faithless to his covenant.
38But he is full of pity: he pardons sin and destroys not. Often he turns his anger away, without stirring his wrath at all.
39So he remembered that they were but flesh, breath that passes and does not return.
40But how often they rebelled in the desert, and caused him grief in the wilderness,
41tempting God again and again, provoking the Holy One of Israel.
42They did not remember his strength, nor the day he redeemed from the foe,
43how he set his signs in Egypt, in the country of Zoan his wonders.
44He turned their canals into blood, their streams undrinkable.
45He sent forth flies, which devoured them; frogs, too, which destroyed them.
46Their crops he gave to the caterpillar, and the fruits of their toil to the locust.
47He slew their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
48He delivered their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.
49He let loose his hot anger among them, fury and wrath and distress, a band of destroying angels.
50He cleared a path for his anger, did not spare them from death, but gave them over to pestilence.
51He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52He led forth his people like sheep, he was guide to his flock in the desert.
53Securely he led them, and free from fear, while their foes were drowned in the sea.
54To his holy realm he brought them, to the mountain his right hand had purchased.
55He drove out the nations before them, and allotted their land for possession, and their tents for Israel to live in.
56Yet they tempted and angered the Most High God, they did not observe his decrees.
57They drew back, false like their ancestors; they failed like a treacherous bow.
58Their shrines stirred him to anger, their idols moved him to jealousy.
59When God heard of this, he was furious, and he spurned Israel utterly.
60He abandoned his home in Shiloh, the tent he had pitched among people.
61He gave his strength up to captivity, his glory to the hands of the foe.
62He gave his people to the sword, he was furious with his own.
63Fire devoured their young men, and their maidens had no marriage-song.
64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.
65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior flushed with wine;
66and he beat back his foes, putting them to perpetual scorn.
67He disowned the tent of Joseph, he rejected the tribe of Ephraim;
68but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
69And he built like the heights his sanctuary, like the earth which he founded forever.
70And he chose David his servant, taking him from the sheepfolds.
71From the mother-ewes he brought him, to be shepherd to Jacob his people, and to Israel his inheritance.
72With upright heart did he shepherd them, and with skilful hands did he guide them.