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[1]Give heed, O my people, to my law: incline your ear to the words of my mouth.
[2]I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter dark sayings which have been from the beginning.
[3]All which we have heard and known, and our fathers have declared to us.
[4]They were not hid from their children to a second generations; the fathers declaring the praises of the Lord, and his mighty acts, and his wonders which he wrought.
[5]And he raised up a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, to make it known to their children:
[6]that another generation might know, even the sons which should be born; and they should arise and declare them to their children.
[7]That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but diligently seek his commandments.
[8]That they should not be as their fathers, a perverse and provoking generation; a generation which set not its heart aright, and its spirit was not steadfast with God.
[9]The children of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle.
[10]They kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in his law.
[11]And they forgot his benefits, and his miracles which he had shewed them;
[12]the miracles which he wrought before their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Tanes.
[13]He clave the sea, and led them through: he made the waters to stand as in a bottle.
[14]And he guided them with a cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire.
[15]he clave a rock in the wilderness, and made them drink as in a great deep.
[16]And he brought water out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down as rivers.
[17]And they sinned yet more against him; they provoked the Most High in the wilderness.
[18]And they tempted God in their hearts, in asking meat for the desire of their souls.
[19]They spoke also against God, and said, Will God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
[20]Forasmuch as he smote the rock, and the waters flowed, and the torrents ran abundantly; will he be able also to give bread, or prepare a table for his people?
[21]Therefore the Lord heard, and was provoked: and fire was kindled in Jacob, and wrath went up against Israel.
[22]Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.
[23]Yet he commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
[24]and rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them the bread of heaven.
[25]Man ate angels' bread; he sent them provision to the full.
[26]He removed the south wind from heaven; and by his might he brought in the south-west wind.
[27]And he rained upon them flesh like dust, and feathered birds like the sand of the seas.
[28]And they fell into the midst of their camp, round about their tents.
[29]So they ate, and were completely filled; and he gave them their desire.
[30]They were not disappointed of their desire: but when their food was yet in their mouth,
[31]then the indignation of God rose up against them, and slew the fattest of them, and overthrew the choice men of Israel.
[32]In the midst of all this they sinned yet more, and believed not his miracles.
[33]And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years with anxiety.
[34]When he slew them, they sought him: and they returned and called betimes upon God.
[35]And they remembered that God was their helper, and the most high God was their redeemer.
[36]Yet they loved him only with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
[37]For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
[38]But he is compassionate, and will forgive their sins, and will not destroy them: yea, he will frequently turn away his wrath, and will not kindle all his anger.
[39]And he remembered that they are flesh; a wind that passes away, and returns not.
[40]How often did they provoke him in the wilderness, and anger him in a dry land!
[41]Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
[42]They remembered not his hand, the day in which he delivered them from the hand of the oppressor.
[43]How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Tanes:
[44]and had changed their rivers into blood; and their streams, that they should not drink.
[45]He sent against them the dog-fly, and it devoured them; and the frog, and it spoiled them.
[46]And he gave their fruit to the canker worm, and their labours to the locust.
[47]He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
[48]And he gave up their cattle to hail, and their substance to the fire.
[49]He sent out against them the fury of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and affliction, a message by evil angels.
[50]He made a way for his wrath; he spared not their souls from death, but consigned their cattle to death;
[51]and smote every first-born in the land of Egypt; the first-fruits of their labours in the tents of Cham.
[52]And he removed his people like sheep; he led them as a flock in the wilderness.
[53]And he guided them with hope, and they feared not: but the sea covered their enemies.
[54]And he brought them in to the mountain of his sanctuary, this mountain which his right hand had purchased.
[55]And he cast out the nations from before them, and made them to inherit by a line of inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
[56]Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies.
[57]And they turned back, and broke covenant, even as also their fathers: they became like a crooked bow.
[58]And they provoked him with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
[59]God heard and lightly regarded them, and greatly despised Israel.
[60]And he rejected the tabernacle of Selom, his tent where he dwelt among men.
[61]And he gave their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the enemy's hand.
[62]And he gave his people to the sword; and disdained his inheritance.
[63]Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins mourned not.
[64]Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows shall not be wept for.
[65]So the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and as a mighty man who has been heated with wine.
[66]And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he brought on them a perpetual reproach.
[67]And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;
[68]but chose the tribe of Juda, the mount Sion which he loved.
[69]And he built his sanctuary as the place of unicorns; he founded it for ever on the earth.
[70]He chose David also his servant, and took him up from the flocks of sheep.
[71]He took him from following the ewes great with young, to be the shepherd of Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance.
[72]So he tended them in the innocency of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
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