1Listen, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2I will open my mouth in an illustration. I will utter dark sayings of old, 3That we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. 4We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done. 5He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. This he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children, 6That the generation to come might know, the children to be born, that they may arise and tell to their children, 7That they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments. 8They should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. 9The sons of Ephraim were archers well equipped with bows. Yet they turned and ran in the day of battle. 10They did not keep the covenant of God. They refused to walk in his law. 11They forgot his deeds and his miracles that he had shown them. 12He wrought wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 13He divided the sea and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand up like a heap. 14He led them with the cloud by day and with a light of fire by night. 15He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. 16He brought forth streams also from the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. 17Yet they still continued to sin against him. They rebelled against the Most High in the desert. 18In their heart they put God to the test by asking food according to their desire. 19Then they spoke against God. They said: Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? 20Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people? 21Therefore Jehovah heard and was full of wrath. A fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also mounted against Israel, 22Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation. 23Yet he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven. 24He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them food from heaven. 25Man did eat the bread of angels. He sent them food in abundance. 26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and by his power he directed the south wind. 27He rained meat upon them like the dust, even winged fowl like the sand of the seas, 28Then he let them fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings. 29So they ate and were well filled, and their desire he gave to them. 30Before they had satisfied their desire, while their food was in their mouths, 31The anger of God rose against them and killed some of their stoutest ones, and subdued the choice men of Israel. 32In spite of all this they still sinned. They did not believe in his wonderful works. 33He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind. He brought their years to an end in terror. 34When he killed some of them, the rest searched for him. They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God. 35They remembered that God was their rock, that the Most High was their defender. 36They flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues. 37Their hearts were not loyal to him. They were not faithful to his promise. 38But he is compassionate. He forgave their sin. He did not destroy them. He restrained his anger many times. He did not display all of his fury. 39He remembered that they were only flesh and blood, a breeze that blows and does not return. 40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! How often they caused him grief in the desert! 41They tested God again and again, and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit. 42They did not remember his power and the day he freed them from their oppressor, 43when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the fields of Zoan. 44He turned their rivers into blood so that they could not drink from their streams. 45He sent a swarm of flies that bit them and frogs that ruined them. 46He gave their crops to grasshoppers and their produce to locusts. 47He killed their vines with hail and their fig trees with frost. 48He let the hail strike their cattle and bolts of lightning strike their livestock. 49He sent his fierce burning anger, his rage and fury against them. He sent an army of destroying angels. 50He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death. He let the plague take their lives. 51He destroyed every firstborn in Egypt, the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young. 52He led his own people out like sheep and guided them like a flock through the wilderness. 53He led them safely. They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies. 54He brought them into his holy land, to this mountain that his power had won. 55He drove nations out of their way and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents. 56They tested God Most High and rebelled against him. They did not obey his written instructions. 57They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. They were like arrows shot from a defective bow. 58They provoked him to anger indignation because of their illegal worship sites. They made him furious because they worshiped idols. 59When God heard, he became furious. He greatly abhorred Israel. 60He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh, the tent where he had lived among humans. 61He allowed his power to be taken captive and handed his glory over to an oppressor. 62He let swords kill his people. He was furious with those who belonged to him. 63Fire consumed his best young men, so his virgins were not given in marriage. 64His priests were cut down with swords. The widows of his priests could not even weep for them. 65Jehovah woke up like one who had been sleeping, like a warrior sobering up from too much wine. 66He struck his enemies from behind and disgraced them forever. 67He rejected the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 68but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion he loved. 69He built his holy place to be like the high heavens, like the earth that he made to last for a long time. 70He chose his servant David. He took him from the sheep pens. 71He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob, of Israel, the people who belonged to Jehovah. 72With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd. With skill he guided them.