Listen, O my people, to my teaching;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth [and be willing to learn].

I will open my mouth in a parable [to instruct using examples];
I will utter dark and puzzling sayings of old [that contain important truth]—

We will not hide them from their children,
But [we will] tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
And [tell of] His great might and power and the wonderful works that He has done.

For He established a testimony (a specific precept) in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach to their children [the great facts of God’s transactions with Israel],

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

And He rained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them the grain of heaven.

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

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

He sent upon them His burning anger,
His fury and indignation and distress,
A band of angels of destruction [among them].

Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,
Like a [mighty] warrior who awakens from the sleep of wine [fully conscious of his power].

But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;
Many times He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.

Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies (laws).

In spite of all this they still sinned,
For they did not believe in His wonderful and extraordinary works.

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

That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born
May arise and recount them to their children,

He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].

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

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

In the daytime He led them with a cloud
And all the night with a light of fire.

When He killed [some of] them, then those remaining sought Him,
And they returned [to Him] and searched diligently for God [for a time].

The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

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

For He [graciously] remembered that they were mere [human] flesh,
A wind that goes and does not return.

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

How He worked His miracles in Egypt
And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided],

Man ate the bread of angels;
God sent them provision in abundance.

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

When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath;
And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways],

And in their hearts they put God to the test
By asking for food according to their [selfish] appetite.

He split rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant [water to] drink like the ocean depths.

He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first and best of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.

And not be like their fathers—
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart to know and follow God,
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader],
Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].

And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens],
Like the earth which He has established forever.

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

He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.

But God led His own people forward like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock.

Yet they still continued to sin against Him
By rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
The tent in which He had dwelled among men,

Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].

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

Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths
And lied to Him with their tongues.

He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned over their lives to the plague.

For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [devoted to idol worship]
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images [by denying Him the love, worship, and obedience that is rightfully and uniquely His].

He divided the [Red] Sea and allowed them to pass through it,
And He made the waters stand up like [water behind] a dam.

And they forgot His [incredible] works
And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.

So He brought them to His holy land,
To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.

He also drove out the nations before the sons of Israel
And allotted their land as an inheritance, measured out and partitioned;
And He had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents [the tents of those who had been dispossessed].

Therefore, when the Lord heard, He was full of wrath;
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
And His anger mounted up against Israel,

From tending the ewes with nursing young 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 and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity,
And His glory into the hand of the enemy (the Philistines).

Because they did not believe in God [they did not rely on Him, they did not adhere to Him],
And they did not trust in His salvation (His power to save).

He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
And by His [unlimited] power He guided the south wind.

They did not remember [the miracles worked by] His [powerful] hand,
Nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].

“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out
And the streams overflowed;
Can He give bread also?
Or will He provide meat for His people?”

The wrath of God rose against them
And killed some of the strongest of them,
And subdued the choice young men of Israel.

He rained meat upon them like the dust,
And winged birds (quail) like the sand of the seas.

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

He brought streams also from the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh]
And caused waters to run down like rivers.

The fire [of war] devoured His young men,
And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs.

He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones,
And their flocks and herds to thunderbolts.

Therefore He consumed their days like a breath [in emptiness and futility]
And their years in sudden terror.

He drove His enemies backward;
He subjected them to lasting shame and dishonor.

And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.

So they ate and were well filled,
He gave them what they craved.

Before they had satisfied their desire,
And while their food was in their mouths,

His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword,
And His widows could not weep.

He also handed His people over to the sword,
And was infuriated with His inheritance (Israel).

And He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
Around their tents.