1 G ive ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,

3 W hich we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us:

4 W e will not hide from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done.

5 F or 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;

6 T hat the generation to come might know, the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell to their children,

7 A nd that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but observe his commandments;

8 A nd might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

9 T he sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.

10 T hey kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

11 A nd forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them.

12 I n the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.

13 H e clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap;

14 A nd he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire.

15 H e clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave drink as out of the depths, abundantly;

16 A nd he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 Y et they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;

18 A nd they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;

19 A nd they spoke against God: they said, Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?

20 B ehold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?

21 T herefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:

22 B ecause they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;

23 T hough he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,

24 A nd had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.

25 M an did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.

26 H e caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;

27 A nd he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,

28 A nd he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:

29 A nd they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.

30 T hey were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,

31 W hen the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

32 F or all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works;

33 A nd he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

34 W hen he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after God;

35 A nd they remembered that God was their rock, and God, the Most High, their redeemer.

36 B ut they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue;

37 F or their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

38 B ut he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury:

39 A nd he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.

40 H ow oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

41 A nd they turned again and tempted God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel.

42 T hey remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor,

43 H ow he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan;

44 A nd turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink;

45 H e sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them;

46 A nd he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust;

47 H e killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones;

48 A nd he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.

49 H e cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress,—a mission of angels of woes.

50 H e made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51 A nd he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.

52 A nd he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

53 A nd he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies.

54 A nd he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased;

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

56 B ut they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,

57 A nd they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.

58 A nd they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

59 G od heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60 A nd he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,

61 A nd gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;

62 A nd delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance:

63 T he fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in song;

64 T heir priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

65 T hen the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine;

66 A nd he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach.

67 A nd he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

68 B ut chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved;

69 A nd he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.

70 A nd he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71 F rom following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72 A nd he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.