1. An instruction of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; bow down your ears to the words of my mouth.
2. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will speak dark sayings of old,
3. which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4. We will not hide them from their sons, showing to the generations to come the praises of Jehovah, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done.
5. For He set up a testimony in Jacob, and ordered a Law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their sons;
6. so that the generation to come might know; sons shall be born, and they shall arise and tell their sons,
7. so that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments;
8. and might not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God.
9. The sons of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10. They did not keep the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His Law.
11. And they forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them.
12. He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand in a heap.
14. And in the daytime He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15. He split the rocks in the wilderness, and let them drink, as from the great depths.
16. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17. And they sinned still more against Him, by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18. And they tempted God in their heart by asking food for their lust.
19. And they spoke against God; they said, Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20. Behold! He struck the rock so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread? Can He provide flesh for His people?
21. Therefore Jehovah heard, and was made furious; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel,
22. because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in His salvation;
23. though He had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens;
24. and had rained down manna on them to eat, and He gave them of the grain of the heavens.
25. Man ate the food of the mighty; He sent them meat to the full.
26. He caused an east wind to blow in the sky; and by His power He brought in the south wind.
27. and He also rained flesh on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea;
28. and He let them fall in the middle of their camp, all around their tents.
29. So they ate, and were filled to the full; for He gave them their own desire.
30. They were not turned away from their lust, but while their food was still in their mouths,
31. the wrath of God came on them and killed the fattest of them, and struck down the chosen of Israel.
32. For all this they still sinned, and did not believe because of His wonderful works.
33. Therefore He ended their days in vanity and their years in trouble.
34. When He killed them, then they looked for Him; and they turned back and sought after God.
35. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God was their redeemer.
36. But they flattered Him with their mouths, and they lied to Him with their tongues.
37. For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.
38. But He, full of pity, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; yea, many times He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.
39. For He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again.
40. How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert!
41. Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Israel.
42. They did not remember His hand, the day when He delivered them from the enemy;
43. how He had set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44. He turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
45. He sent different kinds of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46. He also gave their crops to the stripping locust, and their labor to the locust.
47. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with sleet.
48. He gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.
49. He sent on them the heat of His anger, wrath and fury and trouble, by sending evil angels.
50. He made a way to His anger; He did not save their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague,
51. and struck all the first-born in Egypt, the first of the strong in the tents of Ham;
52. and led His people forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53. And He led them on safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea flooded over their enemies.
54. And He brought them within His own holy border, this mountain, which His right hand had bought.
55. He also cast out the nations before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56. Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies;
57. but they turned back, and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceiving bow.
58. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.
59. When God heard, He was angry, and turned away from Israel;
60. so that He left the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men,
61. and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hands.
62. He also gave His people over to the sword, and was angry with His inheritance.
63. The fire burned up their young men; and their maidens were not given in marriage.
64. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows were not able to weep.
65. Then the Lord awakened like one out of sleep, like a mighty man rejoicing with wine.
66. And He drove His enemies backward; He put them to a never-ending shame.
67. And He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;
68. but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.
69. And He built His holy place like high palaces, like the earth which He has founded forever.
70. He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71. from following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
72. And he fed them according to the pureness of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.