Hebrew Bible

Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;

That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,

We will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wondrous works that He hath done.

For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children,

That they might put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;

And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

The children of Ephraim were as archers handling the bow, that turned back in the day of battle.

They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;

And they forgot His doings, and His wondrous works that He had shown them.

Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

He cleaved the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.

By day also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

He cleaved rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the great deep.

He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

Yet went they on still to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

And they tried God in their heart by asking food for their craving.

Yea, they spoke against God; they said: 'Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can He give bread also? or will He provide flesh for His people?'

Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth; and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;

Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.

And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;

And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven.

Man did eat the bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions to the full.

He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven; and by His power He brought on the south wind.

He caused flesh also to rain upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas;

And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings.

So they did eat, and were well filled; and He gave them that which they craved.

They were not estranged from their craving, their food was yet in their mouths,

When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the lustieth among them, and smote down the young men of Israel.

For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His wondrous works.

Therefore He ended their days as a breath, and their years in terror.

When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly.

And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.

But they beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongue.

For their heart was not stedfast with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.

But He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity, and destroyeth not; yea, many a time doth He turn His anger away, and doth not stir up all His wrath.

So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

How oft did they rebel against Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!

And still again they tried God, and set bounds to the Holy One of Israel.

They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He redeemed them from the adversary.

How He set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan;

And turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink their streams.

He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.

He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.

He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to fiery bolts.

He sent forth upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a sending of messengers of evil.

He levelled a path for His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

And smote all the first-born in Egypt, the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;

But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

And He led them safely, and they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

And He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain, which His right hand had gotten.

He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

Yet they tried and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not His testimonies;

But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

For they provoked Him with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

God heard, and was wroth, and He greatly abhorred Israel;

And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had made to dwell among men;

And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the adversary's hand.

He gave His people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with His inheritance.

Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins had no marriage-song.

Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

Then the Lord awaked as one asleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine.

And He smote His adversaries backward; He put upon them a perpetual reproach.

Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;

But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.

And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He hath founded for ever.

He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

From following the ewes that give suck He brought him, to be shepherd over Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart; and lead them by the skilfulness of his hands.