That the Generation to Come Might Know
A Maskil of Asaph.
aGive ear, O my people, to my instruction;
bIncline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will aopen my mouth in a parable;
I will pour forth bdark sayings of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
And aour fathers have recounted to us.
4 We will anot conceal them from their children,
But brecount to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh,
And His strength and His cwondrous deeds that He has done.
5 For He established a atestimony in Jacob
And set a blaw in Israel,
Which He ccommanded our fathers
That they should dteach them to their children,
6 aThat the generation to come might know, even bthe children yet to be born,
That they may arise and crecount them to their children,
7 That they should set their confidence in God
And anot forget the deeds of God,
But bobserve His commandments,
8 And anot be like their fathers,
A bstubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that cdid not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not dfaithful to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim were aarchers equipped with bows,
Yet bthey turned back in the day of battle.
10 They adid not keep the covenant of God
And refused to bwalk in His law;
11 So they aforgot His acts
And His wondrous deeds that He had shown them.
12 aHe did wonders before their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the bfield of Zoan.
13 He asplit the sea and caused them to pass through,
And He made the waters stand bup like a heap.
14 Then He led them with the cloud by aday
And all the night with a blight of fire.
15 He was asplitting the rocks in the wilderness
And so gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
16 He abrought 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 arebel against the Most High in the desert.
18 And in their heart they aput God to the test
By asking for bfood according to their desire.
19 Then they spoke against God;
They said, “aCan God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He astruck the rock so that waters gushed out,
And streams were overflowing;
Can He give bread also?
Will He prepare bmeat for His people?”
21 Therefore Yahweh heard and was afull of wrath;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob
And anger also mounted against Israel,
22 Because they adid not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.
23 Yet He commanded the skies above
And aopened the doors of heaven;
24 He arained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them bgrain from heaven.
25 Man ate the bread of angels;
He sent them provision ato satisfy.
26 He aled 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 awinged 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 aate and were very satisfied,
And their desire He brought to them.
30 Before they had satisfied their desire,
aWhile their food was in their mouths,
31 The aanger of God rose against them
And killed some of their bstoutest ones,
And subdued the choice men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this they astill sinned
And bdid not believe in His wondrous deeds.
33 So He brought atheir days to an end in futility
And their years in sudden terror.
34 When He killed them, then they asought Him,
And returned and sought bearnestly for God;
35 And they remembered that God was their arock,
And the Most High God their bRedeemer.
36 But they adeceived Him with their mouth
And blied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not aprepared to remain with Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
38 But He, being acompassionate, batoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them;
And He abounded in cturning back His anger
And did not arouse all His wrath.
39 Thus aHe remembered that they were but bflesh,
A cwind that goes and does not return.
40 How often they arebelled against Him in the wilderness
And bgrieved Him in the cwasteland!
41 Again and again they atested God,
And pained the bHoly One of Israel.
42 They adid not remember bHis power,
The day when He credeemed them from the adversary,
43 When He performed His asigns in Egypt
And His bmiracles in the field of Zoan,
44 And aturned their rivers to blood,
And their streams, they could not drink.
45 He sent among them swarms of aflies which devoured them,
And bfrogs which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crops to the agrasshopper
And the fruit of their labor to the blocust.
47 He killed their vines with ahailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave over their acattle also to the hailstones
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
49 He asent 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 agave over their life to the plague,
51 So He astruck all the firstborn in Egypt,
The bfirst of their vigor in the tents of cHam.
52 But He aled forth His own people like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness blike a flock;
53 He led them asafely, so that they did not fear;
But bthe sea covered their enemies.
54 So aHe brought them to His holy land,
To this bhill country cwhich His right hand had acquired.
55 He also adrove out the nations before them
And bapportioned them for an inheritance by measurement,
And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they atested and brebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies,
57 But turned back and aacted treacherously like their fathers;
They bturned aside like a treacherous bow.
58 For they aprovoked Him with their bhigh places
And caroused His jealousy with their dgraven images.
59 God heard and was filled with awrath
And greatly brejected Israel;
60 So that He aabandoned the bdwelling place at Shiloh,
The tent which He caused to dwell among men,
61 And gave up His astrength to captivity
And His beauty binto the hand of the adversary.
62 He also agave over His people to the sword,
And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.
63 aFire devoured His choice men,
And His bvirgins had no wedding songs.
64 His apriests fell by the sword,
And His bwidows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord aawoke as if from sleep,
As if He were a bwarrior overcome by wine.
66 He astruck His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting reproach.
67 He also arejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount aZion which He loved.
69 And He abuilt His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.
70 He also achose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71 From afollowing the bnursing ewes He brought him
To cshepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel dHis inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the aintegrity of his heart,
And led them with his skillful hands.