A Maskil of Asaph.
Listen, O my people, to my instruction;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,

We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,

How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!

He rained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them food from heaven.

He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.

He sent upon them His burning anger,
Fury and indignation and trouble,
A band of destroying angels.

Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
Like a warrior overcome by wine.

But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them;
And often He restrained His anger
And did not arouse all His wrath.

Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies,

In spite of all this they still sinned
And did not believe in His wonderful works.

Again and again they tempted God,
And pained the Holy One of Israel.

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,

He wrought wonders before their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

Yet He commanded the clouds above
And opened the doors of heaven;

And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.

Then He led them with the cloud by day
And all the night with a light of fire.

When He killed them, then they sought Him,
And returned and searched diligently for God;

The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,

Thus He remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passes and does not return.

Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.

When He performed His signs in Egypt
And His marvels in the field of Zoan,

Man did eat the bread of angels;
He sent them food in abundance.

Then they spoke against God;
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

When God heard, He was filled with wrath
And greatly abhorred Israel;

And in their heart they put God to the test
By asking food according to their desire.

He split the rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.

And smote all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first issue of their virility in the tents of Ham.

And 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.

But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loved.

And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.

They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk in His law;

He destroyed their vines with hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.

But He led forth His own people like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

Yet they still continued to sin against Him,
To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,
The tent which He had pitched among men,

He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

But they deceived Him with their mouth
And lied to Him with their tongue.

He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their soul from death,
But gave over their life to the plague,

For they provoked Him with their high places
And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.

He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
And He made the waters stand up like a heap.

They forgot His deeds
And His miracles that He had shown them.

So He brought them to His holy land,
To this hill country which His right hand had gained.

He also drove out the nations before them
And apportioned them for an inheritance by measurement,
And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob
And anger also mounted against Israel,

From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.

He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them,
And frogs which destroyed them.

He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies.

And gave up His strength to captivity
And His glory into the hand of the adversary.

Because they did not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.

He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
And by His power He directed the south wind.

They did not remember His power,
The day when He redeemed them from the adversary,

But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;
They turned aside like a treacherous bow.

“Behold, 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?”

The anger of God rose against them
And killed some of their stoutest ones,
And subdued the choice men of Israel.

When He rained meat upon them like the dust,
Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,

He gave also their crops to the grasshopper
And the product of their labor to the locust.

He brought forth streams also from the rock
And caused waters to run down like rivers.

Fire devoured His young men,
And His virgins had no wedding songs.

He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones
And their herds to bolts of lightning.

So He brought their days to an end in futility
And their years in sudden terror.

He drove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting reproach.

And turned their rivers to blood,
And their streams, they could not drink.

So they ate and were well filled,
And their desire He gave to them.

Before they had satisfied their desire,
While their food was in their mouths,

His priests fell by the sword,
And His widows could not weep.

He also delivered His people to the sword,
And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their dwellings.