1Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your{+} ears to the words of my mouth. 2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will gush out dark sayings of old, 3Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4We will not hide them from their sons, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, And his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done. 5For 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 sons; 6That the generation to come might know [them], even the sons who should be born; Who should arise and tell [them] to their sons, 7That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments, 8And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set their heart aright, And whose spirit was not steadfast with God. 9The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying 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 doings, And his wondrous works that 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 split the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as a heap. 14In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, And all the night with a light of fire. 15He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. 16He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers. 17Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert. 18And they tried God in their heart By asking food according to their desire. 19Yes, they spoke against God; They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? 20Look, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people? 21Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also went up against Israel; 22Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in his salvation. 23Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven; 24And he rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from heaven. 25Man ate the bread of the mighty: He sent them food to the full. 26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; And by his power he guided the south wind. 27He rained flesh also on them as the dust, And winged birds as the sand of the seas: 28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their habitations. 29So they ate, and were well filled; And he gave them their own desire. 30They were not estranged from that which they desired, Their food was yet in their mouths, 31When the anger of God went up against them, And slew of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel. 32For all this they sinned still, And did not believe in his wondrous works. 33Therefore their days he consumed in vanity, And their years in terror. 34When he slew them, then they inquired after him; And they returned and sought God earnestly. 35And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their redeemer. 36But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue. 37For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant. 38But he, being merciful, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: Yes, many a time he turned his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath. 39And he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and does not come again. 40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, And grieved him in the desert! 41And they turned again and tried God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel. 42They did not remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; 43How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan, 44And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink. 45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them. 46He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, And their labor to the locust. 47He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycamore-trees with frost. 48He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 49He cast on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil. 50He made a path for his anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence, 51And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. 52But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53And he led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten. 55He drove out the nations also before them, And allotted them for an inheritance by line, And caused the tribes of Israel to stay in their tents. 56Yet they tried and rebelled against the Most High God, And did not keep his testimonies; 57But turned back, and betrayed [him] like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59When God heard [this], he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel; 60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he made a place to stay among man; 61And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary's hand. 62He gave his people over also to the sword, And was angry with his inheritance. 63Fire devoured their young men; And their virgins had no marriage-song. 64Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation. 65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine. 66And he struck his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach. 67Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 68But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved. 69And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever. 70He chose David also his slave, And took him from the sheepfolds: 71From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.