1Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old:
3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.
5For 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:
6That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children:
7That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11And they forgat his doings, and his wondrous works that he had shewed them.
12Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
14In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
16He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17Yet went they on still to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
18And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20Behold, he smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can he give bread also? will he provide flesh for his people?
21Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;
22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.
23Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
24And he rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven.
25Man did eat the bread of the mighty: he sent them meat to the full.
26He caused the east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he guided the south wind.
27He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas:
28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29So they did eat, and were well filled; and he gave them that they lusted after.
30They were not estranged from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,
31When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the fattest of them, and smote down the young men of Israel.
32For all this they sinned still, and believed not in his wondrous works.
33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in terror.
34When he slew them, then they inquired after him: and they returned and sought God early.
35And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
36But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue.
37For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
38But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39And he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41And they turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary.
43How he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan;
44And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink.
45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
48He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a band of angels of evil.
50He made a path for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham:
52But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53And he led them safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies;
57But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the adversary's hand.
62He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
63Fire devoured their young men; and their maidens had no marriage-song.
64Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
65Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66And he smote his adversaries backward: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;
68But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
70He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71From following the ewes that give suck he brought him, to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.