• That the Generation to Come Might Know

  • 1 Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
  • 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour forth dark sayings of old,
  • 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have recounted to us.
  • 4 We will not conceal them from their children, But recount to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, And His strength and His wondrous deeds that He has done.
  • 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob And set a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children,
  • 6 That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and recount them to their children,
  • 7 That they should set their confidence in God And not forget the deeds of God, But observe His commandments,
  • 8 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.
  • 9 The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
  • 10 They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law;
  • 11 So they forgot His acts And His wondrous deeds that He had shown them.
  • 12 He did wonders before their fathers In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
  • 13 He split the sea and caused them to pass through, And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
  • 14 Then He led them with the cloud by day And all the night with a light of fire.
  • 15 He was splitting the rocks in the wilderness And so gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
  • 16 He brought forth streams also from the cliff face And caused waters to run down like rivers.
  • 17 Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
  • 18 And in their heart they put God to the test By asking for food according to their desire.
  • 19 Then 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 were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He prepare meat for His people?”
  • 21 Therefore Yahweh heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel,
  • 22 Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation.
  • 23 Yet He commanded the skies above And opened the doors of heaven;
  • 24 He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them grain from heaven.
  • 25 Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them provision to satisfy.
  • 26 He led forth the east wind in the heavens And by His strength He guided the south wind.
  • 27 Then He rained meat upon them like the dust, Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,
  • 28 He caused them to fall in the midst of His camp, All around His dwelling places.
  • 29 So they ate and were very satisfied, And their desire He brought to them.
  • 30 Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths,
  • 31 The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.
  • 32 In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wondrous deeds.
  • 33 So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror.
  • 34 When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and sought earnestly for God;
  • 35 And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
  • 36 But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue.
  • 37 For their heart was not prepared to remain with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
  • 38 But He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; And He abounded in turning back His anger And did not arouse all His wrath.
  • 39 Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that goes and does not return.
  • 40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the wasteland!
  • 41 Again and again they tested God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
  • 42 They did not remember His power, The day when He redeemed them from the adversary,
  • 43 When He performed His signs in Egypt And His miracles in the field of Zoan,
  • 44 And turned their rivers to blood, And their streams, they could not drink.
  • 45 He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them, And frogs which destroyed them.
  • 46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper And the fruit of their labor to the locust.
  • 47 He killed their vines with hailstones And their sycamore trees with frost.
  • 48 He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones And their herds to bolts of lightning.
  • 49 He sent upon them His burning anger, Fury and indignation and distress, A band of destroying angels.
  • 50 He leveled a path for His anger; He did not hold back their soul from death, But gave over their life to the plague,
  • 51 So He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The first of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
  • 52 But He led forth His own people like sheep And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
  • 53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea covered their enemies.
  • 54 So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country which His right hand had acquired.
  • 55 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.
  • 56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies,
  • 57 But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow.
  • 58 For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.
  • 59 God heard and was filled with wrath And greatly rejected Israel;
  • 60 So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He caused to dwell among men,
  • 61 And gave up His strength to captivity And His beauty into the hand of the adversary.
  • 62 He also gave over His people to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.
  • 63 Fire devoured His choice men, And His virgins had no wedding songs.
  • 64 His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.
  • 65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, As if He were a warrior overcome by wine.
  • 66 He struck His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting reproach.
  • 67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
  • 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved.
  • 69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever.
  • 70 He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds;
  • 71 From following the nursing ewes He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance.
  • 72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And led them with his skillful hands.