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[1]Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
[2]I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;
[3]That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,
[4]We will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of 𐤉𐤇𐤅𐤇, and His strength, and His wondrous works that He hath done.
[5]For 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;
[6]That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children,
[7]That they might put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;
[8]And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebelliou generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
[9]The children of Ephraim were as archers handling the bow, that turned back in the day of battle.
[10]They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;
[11]And they forgot His doings, and His wondrous works that He had shown them.
[12]Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
[13]He cleaved the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
[14]By day also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
[15]He cleaved rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the great deep.
[16]He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
[17]Yet went they on still to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
[18]And they tried God in their heart by asking food for their craving.
[19]Yea, they spoke against God; they said: 'Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
[20]Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can He give bread also? or will He provide flesh for His people?'
[21]Therefore 𐤉𐤇𐤅𐤇 heard, and was wroth; and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;
[22]Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.
[23]And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
[24]And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven.
[25]Man did eat the bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions to the full.
[26]He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven; and by His power He brought on the south wind.
[27]He caused flesh also to rain upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas;
[28]And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings.
[29]So they did eat, and were well filled; and He gave them that which they craved.
[30]They were not estranged from their craving, their food was yet in their mouths,
[31]When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the lustiest among them, and smote down the young men of Israel.
[32]For all this they sinned s till, and believed not in His wondrous works.
[33]Therefore He ended their days as a breath, and their years in terror.
[34]When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly.
[35]And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
[36]But they beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongue.
[37]For their heart was not stedfast with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.
[38]But He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity, and destroyeth not; yea, many a time doth He turn His anger away, and doth not stir up all His wrath.
[39]So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
[40]How oft did they rebel against Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!
[41]And still again they tried God, and set bounds to the Holy One of Israel.
[42]They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He redeemed them from the adversary.
[43]How He set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan;
[44]And turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink their streams.
[45]He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
[46]He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.
[47]He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.
[48]He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to fiery bolts.
[49]He sent forth upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, an indignation, and trouble, a sending of messengers of evil.
[50]He levelled a path for His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
[51]And smote all the first-born in Egypt, the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;
[52]But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
[53]And He led them safely, and they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
[54]And He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain, which His right hand had gotten.
[55]He 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.
[56]Yet they tried and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not His testimonies;
[57]But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
[58]For they provoked Him with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
[59]God heard, and was wroth, and He greatly abhorred Israel;
[60]And He forsook the tabernacle o Shiloh, the tent which He had made to dwell among men;
[61]And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the adversary's hand.
[62]He gave His people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with His inheritance.
[63]Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins had marriage-song.
[64]Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
[65]Then the Lord awaked as one asleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine.
[66]And He smote His adversaries backward; He put upon them a perpetual reproach.
[67]Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;
[68]But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.
[69]And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He hath founded for ever.
[70]He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
[71]From following the ewes that give suck He brought him, to be shepherd over Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
[72]So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart; and lead them by t skilfulness of his hands.
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