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 the LORD, 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 the LORD 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 to 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.