1 Listen, my people, to my law; bend your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings from long ago,
3 things we have heard and come to know, which our fathers recounted to us.
4 We will not conceal them from their sons; to a later generation we will recount the praises of the LORD, his strength, and the wonders he has performed.
5 For he set up a testimony in Jacob and placed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their sons,
6 that a later generation might know them, sons who were yet to be born, and that they might arise and recount them to their sons,
7 so that they would put their confidence in God and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments,
8 and not be like their fathers, a generation stubborn and defiant, a generation whose heart was not firm and whose spirit was not true to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed and shooting with bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God, and they refused to walk in his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had let them see.
12 Before their fathers he worked marvels in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and brought them across, and he made the waters stand up like a heap.
14 By day he guided them with the cloud, and through the whole night with the light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the desert and gave them drink in plenty, as from the great deep.
16 He brought out streams from the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 But they kept on sinning against him still more, defying the Most High in the parched land.
18 They put God to the test in their hearts, demanding food for their appetite.
19 They spoke against God, saying, "Is God able to spread a table in the desert?
20 True, he struck the rock so that water gushed and streams flowed in floods; but can he give bread too, or supply meat for his people?"
21 So when the LORD heard, he was furious; fire blazed against Jacob, and anger too went up against Israel,
22 for they did not believe God or rely on his salvation.
23 And he gave command to the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained manna upon them to eat and gave them the grain of the heavens.
25 Each man ate the bread of the mighty; he sent them food to the full.
26 He set the east wind going in the heavens and led out the south wind by his strength.
27 He rained flesh upon them like dust, and birds on the wing like the sand of the seas;
28 he made them drop in the middle of their camp, around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were filled to the full; he gave them what they longed for.
30 They had not yet turned from their craving, while their food was still in their mouths,
31 when the anger of God went up against them; he slew the strongest among them and laid low the chosen men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this they sinned still, and they did not believe in his wonders.
33 So he ended their days in emptiness, and their years in sudden dread.
34 Whenever he slew them, they would inquire after him; they would turn and seek God early.
35 They would remember that God was their rock, and God Most High their redeemer.
36 Yet they deceived him with their mouths, and with their tongues they lied to him.
37 Their heart was not firm toward him, nor were they true to his covenant.
38 But he, full of compassion, made atonement for iniquity and did not destroy; often he held back his anger and did not rouse all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were flesh, a breath that goes away and does not return.
40 How many times they defied him in the desert and pained him in the wasteland!
41 They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his hand, the day he ransomed them from the foe,
43 how he put his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the field of Zoan.
44 He changed their rivers to blood, and their streams too, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies that ate them up, and frogs that ruined them.
46 He handed their produce to the grasshopper, and the fruit of their toil to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore figs with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle to the hail, and their herds to flashes of lightning.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath and fury and trouble, a company of messengers of harm.
50 He made a way for his anger; he did not keep their soul from death, but gave their life up to the pestilence.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought out his people like sheep and led them through the wilderness like a flock.
53 He guided them securely, and they did not fear, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy territory, to this mountain his right hand had gained.
55 He cast out the nations before them and apportioned them as an inheritance by line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested and defied God Most High and did not observe his testimonies.
57 They fell away and were faithless like their fathers; they turned like a bow that cannot be trusted.
58 They angered him with their high places and stirred his jealousy with their carved idols.
59 When God heard, he was furious and wholly rejected Israel.
60 He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
61 He handed over his strength to captivity, and his glory into the foe's hand.
62 He delivered his people to the sword and was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed his young men, and his maidens were not praised in song.
64 His priests fell by the sword, and his widows could not lament.
65 Then the Lord woke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting from wine.
66 He beat back his foes; he gave them lasting disgrace.
67 He spurned the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 he chose instead the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like the high places, like the earth that he founded for all time.
70 And he chose David his servant and took him from the pens of the sheep;
71 from tending the ewes with young he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
72 And he shepherded them with an upright heart and led them with skillful hands.