An Instructive Psalm. Asaph’s.

¹ Give ear, O my people, to mine instruction, Bend your ear to the sayings of my mouth;

² I will open, in a parable, my mouth, I will pour forth enigmas out of antiquity;—

³ Which we have heard, and come to know, And, our fathers, have recounted to us;

⁴ We will not withhold [them] from their children, To a later generation, recounting the praises of Yahweh, Even his might and his wonders which he wrought;

⁵ When he set up a testimony in Jacob, And, a law, appointed in Israel,—Which he commanded our fathers, That they might make them known to their children;

⁶ To the end, A later generation, might come to know, Children who should be born, Who should arise, and recount [them] to their children;

⁷ That they might set, in Elohim, their confidence,—And not forget the doings of El, But, his commandments, might observe;

⁸ And not become, like their fathers, a generation stubborn and rebellious,—A generation that fixed not their heart, Neither was their spirit, faithful with GOD.

⁹ The sons of Ephraim—armed bowmen, Turned in the day of battle;

¹⁰ They kept not the covenant of God, And, in his law, refused to walk;

¹¹ And forgat His doings, And his wonders which he had showed them:

¹² In presence of their fathers, wrought he, wondrously,—In the land of Egypt—the field of Zoan:

¹³ He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through, And reared up the waters like a mound;

¹⁴ And led them, by a cloud, in the daytime, And all the night, by a light of fire;

¹⁵ He used to cleave rocks in the desert, And let them drink as out of mighty deeps;

¹⁶ And he brought forth streams out of the cliff, And caused waters to flow down, like rivers.

¹⁷ But again, once more sinned they against him, Resisting the Most High in a land of drought:

¹⁸ They put GOD to the proof in their heart, By asking food to their mind:

¹⁹ Yea they spake against Elohim,—They said, Can GOD prepare a table in the desert?

²⁰ Lo! he hath smitten a rock, And waters, have gushed out, Yea, torrents, have rushed along,—Food also, can he give? Or provide flesh for his people?

²¹ Therefore, Yahweh hearkened, and became wroth,—And, a fire, was kindled against Jacob, Moreover also, anger, mounted against Israel;

²² Because, They believed not in God, Nor trusted in his salvation;

²³ Though he had commanded the skies above, And, the doors of the heavens, had opened;

²⁴ And had rained on them manna to eat, And, the corn of the heavens, had given to them:

²⁵ The food of the mighty, each one did eat, Nourishment, sent he them to the full;

²⁶ He let loose an east wind in the heavens, Then guided he, in his might, a south wind;

²⁷ And rained upon them flesh as the dust, And, like the sand of the seas, birds of wing;

²⁸ And let them fall in the midst of their camp,—Round about their habitations.

²⁹ So they did eat and were abundantly filled, When, what they longed for, he had brought them:—

³⁰ They had not turned away from what they had longed for, Yet was their food in their mouth,

³¹ When, the anger of God, mounted against them, And he slew of their vigorous youths, And, the choice young men of Israel, caused he to bow down in death.

³² For all this, sinned they still, And believed not in his wonders;

³³ So he ended, in a breath, their days, And their years, in a sudden terror!

³⁴ If he slew [of] them, then they sought him, Yea they turned, and did earnestly seek GOD;

³⁵ And remembered that, Elohim, was their rock, Yea, EL Most High, their Redeemer:

³⁶ So they spake him fair with their mouth, And, with their tongue, did promise him falsely;

³⁷ But, their heart, was not fixed with him, Nor were they trusty in his covenant:

³⁸ Yet, he, full of compassion, would put a propitiatory-covering over iniquity, and not destroy,—Yea, many a time, turned he back his anger, And would not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ So then he remembered, That, Flesh, they were, A Wind departing, that returneth not.

⁴⁰ How often they, Resisted him in the desert, Vexed him, in the waste:

⁴¹ Yea they again put GOD to the test, And, to the Holy One of Israel, caused they sorrow:

⁴² They remembered not his hand—The day, When he ransomed them from the adversary;

⁴³ When he set, in Egypt, his signs, And his wonders, in the plain of Zoan;

⁴⁴ When he turned, into blood, their Nile-streams, And, their own rivers, could they not drink;

⁴⁵ He sent among them, The gad-fly, and it devoured them, And the frog, and it despoiled them;

⁴⁶ When he gave to the corn-locust their produce, And their toil, to the swarming locust;

⁴⁷ He killed, with hail, their vine, And their sycomores, with frost:

⁴⁸ When he gave up, to hail-storms, their beasts, And their cattle, to pestilent fevers;

⁴⁹ He sent among them the heat of his anger, Wrath and indignation and distress,—A mission of messengers of misfortune:

⁵⁰ He leveled a path for his anger, Withheld not, from death, their soul, But, their life—to the pestilence, he delivered:

⁵¹ So he smote, Every first-born in Egypt, The beginning of their strength, in the tents of Ham;

⁵² And he set forth, like sheep, his people, And guided them, like a flock in the desert;

⁵³ Yea he led them securely, and they dreaded not, And, their enemies, the sea did cover.

⁵⁴ Then brought he them within his own holy bounds, The mountain-range, which his right hand made his own:

⁵⁵ So he drave out, before them, [whole] nations, And allotted them, by line, an inheritance, And caused to dwell, in their own homes, the tribes of Israel.

⁵⁶ But they tested and resisted God Most High, And, his testimonies, did not observe;

⁵⁷ But drew back and dealt treacherously, like their fathers, They turned aside, like deceitful bowmen;

⁵⁸ And provoked him to anger with their high places, And, with their images, used to move him to jealousy.

⁵⁹ God heard and was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰ So he gave up the habitation of Shiloh, The tent he had set up among Men;

⁶¹ Yea he gave up, into captivity, his strength, And his beauty into the hand of an adversary;

⁶² And delivered up, to the sword, his people, And, with his own inheritance, was he wroth;

⁶³ His young men, were devoured by fire, And, his virgins, were not praised in song;

⁶⁴ His priests, by the sword, did fall, And, his widows, were not able to bewail.

⁶⁵ Then awoke, as one that had slept, Adonay, As a warrior exulting with wine!

⁶⁶ So he smote his adversaries in the rear, Reproach age-abiding, laid he upon them.

⁶⁷ Howbeit he rejected the tent of Joseph, And, the tribe of Ephraim, did not choose:

⁶⁸ But made choice of the tribe of Judah, The mountain of Zion, which he loved;

⁶⁹ And built, like the heights, his sanctuary, Like the earth, he founded it to times age-abiding.

⁷⁰ And made choice of David his servant, And took him from among the folds of the sheep:

⁷¹ From after the sucking ewes, he brought him in,—To be shepherd to Jacob his people, And to Israel, his inheritance.

⁷² So he did shepherd them, according to the singleness of his heart, And, with the discernment of his hands, used he to guide them.