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