An instruction of Asaph.{HR}Give ear, my people, to my law;{HR}Incline your ear to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable,{HR}I will utter dark sayings from of old;
Which we have heard and known,{HR}And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide [them] from their sons,{HR}Telling the generations to come the praises of Jehovah,{HR}And his strength, and his wondrous works which he wrought.
For he established a testimony in Jacob,{HR}And appointed a law in Israel,{HR}Which he commanded our fathers to make [them] known to their sons,
That the generation to come might know, sons to be born,{HR}Who should rise up and tell their sons,
And they might set their hope in God,{HR}And not forget the deeds of God (El),{HR}And keep his commandments;
And might not be as their fathers,{HR}A stubborn and rebellious generation,{HR}A generation that set (prepared) not their hearts,{HR}And whose spirit was not steadfast with God (El).
The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen,{HR}Turned in the day of battle.
They kept not God’s covenant{HR}And in his law refused to walk;
And they forgot his deeds{HR}And his wondrous works{HR}Which he caused them to see.
In the sight of their fathers{HR}He wrought wonders in the land of Egypt,{HR}The field of Zoan.
He clave the sea and caused them to pass through{HR}And made the waters to stand as a heap;
And he led them with a cloud by day{HR}And all the night with light of fire.
He clave rocks in the wilderness,{HR}And gave drink as the depths abundantly,
He brought streams from the rock (crag){HR}And caused waters to come down like the rivers.
Yet they still went on to sin against him,{HR}To rebel against the Most High in the desert (dry);
And they tempted God in their hearts{HR}By asking food for their lust (souls).
And they spoke against God; they said,{HR}Shall God be able to furnish a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he smote the rock,{HR}And waters gushed out,{HR}And streams overflowed;{HR}Can he give bread also,{HR}Or provide flesh for his people?
Therefore Jehovah heard and was wroth;{HR}And fire was kindled against Jacob,{HR}And anger also went up against Israel;
Because they believed not in God{HR}And trusted not in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above,{HR}And opened the doors of heaven,
And he rained upon them manna to eat,{HR}And had given them the corn of the heavens.
Man did eat the bread of the mighty;{HR}He sent them provision to the full.
He led forth the east [wind] in the heavens,{HR}And by his strength guided the south [wind],
And he rained flesh upon them as dust{HR}And winged fowl as sand of the sea,
And let it fall in the midst of the camp{HR}Round about their habitations.
And they did eat and were well filled.{HR}He brought to them their desire;
They were not estranged from their desire;{HR}Their food [was] yet in their mouths,
When God’s anger went up against them and slew their fattest,{HR}And smote down the chosen of Israel.
For all this they sinned still,{HR}And believed not in his wondrous works;
He consumed their days in vanity,{HR}And their years in terror.
When he slew them, then they enquired after him,{HR}And turned and sought God (El) eagerly.
And they remembered that God [was] their rock,{HR}And God Most High their redeemer.
And they flattered (enticed) him with their mouth,{HR}And lied to him with their tongue.
And their heart was not firm with him,{HR}Nor were they steadfast in his covenant.
But he mercifully forgave iniquity, and destroyed not,{HR}And often withdrew his anger and did not arouse all his wrath;
And he remembered that they [were] flesh,{HR}A wind passing and not coming again.
How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness{HR}And grieve him in the desert!
And they turned again and tempted God ,{HR}And limited the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand,{HR}The day when he delivered them from oppression,
How he set his signs in Egypt{HR}And his wonders in the field of Zoan,
And turned their rivers to blood,{HR}And their streams that they could not drink.
He sent among them dogflies, and they devoured them;{HR}And frogs, and they destroyed them.
And he gave their increase to the caterpillar,{HR}And their labour to the locust.
He killed their vines with the hail,{HR}And their sycamore trees with the frost,
And delivered their cattle to the hail{HR}And their flocks to the lightnings.
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,{HR}Wrath, and indignation, and distress,{HR}By sending angels of woes.
He made a path for his anger,{HR}He withheld their soul from death,{HR}And their life he gave over to the pestilence;
And he smote every first-born in Egypt,{HR}The first fruits of vigour in the tents of Ham.
And he made his people go as the sheep,{HR}And guided them as the flock in the wilderness;
And he led them safely, and they feared not;{HR}And the sea covered their enemies.
And he brought them to the border of his holiness,{HR}This mountain his right hand purchased,
And drove out before them nations,{HR}And allotted them by a line [for] an inheritance,{HR}And caused the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents..
But they tempted and resisted God Most High,{HR}And kept not his testimonies,
And revolted, and dealt treacherously like their fathers;{HR}They were turned like a deceitful bow.
And they provoked him to anger with their high places,{HR}And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
God heard and was wroth{HR}And greatly abhorred Israel.
And he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,{HR}His tent he pitched among men,
And gave his strength into captivity,{HR}And his beauty into the oppressor’s hand.
And he gave over to the sword his people,{HR}And was wroth with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their chosen,{HR}And their maidens were not praised in song;
Their priests fell by the sword,{HR}And their widows wept not.
And the Lord awoke as a sleeper,{HR}As a mighty man shouting aloud from wine;
And he smote his adversaries backward{HR}And put them to everlasting reproach.
And he rejected the tent of Joseph,{HR}And the tribe of Ephraim did not choose;
And he chose the tribe of Judah,{HR}The mount Zion which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like high [places],{HR}Like the earth he founded forever.
And he chose David his servant,{HR}And took him from the sheepfold;
From behind suckling [ewes] he brought him{HR}To feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart,{HR}And in the skill of his hands he led them.