Chapter text
World English Bible
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- 1 A contemplation by Asaph. Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
- 2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
- 3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
- 4 We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.
- 5 For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
- 6 that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,
- 7 that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments,
- 8 and might not be as their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
- 9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
- 10 They didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law.
- 11 They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.
- 12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
- 13 He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.
- 14 In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
- 15 He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
- 16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
- 17 Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
- 18 They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
- 19 Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
- 20 Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”
- 21 Therefore the LORD heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,
- 22 because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.
- 23 Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.
- 24 He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.
- 25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.
- 26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
- 27 He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas.
- 28 He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.
- 29 So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
- 30 They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,
- 31 when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel.
- 32 For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
- 33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
- 34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
- 35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.
- 36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
- 37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
- 38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
- 39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
- 40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
- 41 They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- 42 They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
- 43 how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
- 44 he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
- 45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
- 46 He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
- 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.
- 48 He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
- 49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.
- 50 He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
- 51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
- 52 But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
- 53 He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
- 54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
- 55 He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- 56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,
- 57 but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow.
- 58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
- 59 When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel,
- 60 so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,
- 61 and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.
- 62 He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
- 63 Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
- 64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
- 65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
- 66 He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
- 67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
- 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
- 69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
- 70 He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
- 71 from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
- 72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.