Book of Common Prayer

⁵ He established a testimony in Jacob,
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children;
⁶ that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
⁷     so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;
⁸ and that they should not be like their fathers,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
    whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ The E′phraimites, armed with^[a] the bow,
    turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant,
    but refused to walk according to his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
    and the miracles that he had shown them.
¹² In the sight of their fathers he wrought marvels
    in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zo′an.
¹³ He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
    and made the waters stand like a heap.
¹⁴ In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
    and all the night with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He cleft rocks in the wilderness,
    and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock,
    and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against him,
    rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their heart
    by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying,
    “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ He smote the rock so that water gushed out
    and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread,
    or provide meat for his people?”

²¹ Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
    a fire was kindled against Jacob,
    his anger mounted against Israel;
²² because they had no faith in God,
    and did not trust his saving power.
²³ Yet he commanded the skies above,
    and opened the doors of heaven;
²⁴ and he rained down upon them manna to eat,
    and gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Man ate of the bread of the angels;
    he sent them food in abundance.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
    and by his power he led out the south wind;
²⁷ he rained flesh upon them like dust,
    winged birds like the sand of the seas;
²⁸ he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
    all around their habitations.
²⁹ And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they had sated their craving,
    while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them
    and he slew the strongest of them,
    and laid low the picked men of Israel.

³² In spite of all this they still sinned;
    despite his wonders they did not believe.
³³ So he made their days vanish like a breath,
    and their years in terror.
³⁴ When he slew them, they sought for him;
    they repented and sought God earnestly.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock,
    the Most High God their redeemer.
³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths;
    they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
    they were not true to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate,
    forgave their iniquity,
    and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often,
    and did not stir up all his wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a wind that passes and comes not again.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the desert!
⁴¹ They tested him again and again,
    and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not keep in mind his power,
    or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
⁴³ when he wrought his signs in Egypt,
    and his miracles in the fields of Zo′an.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood,
    so that they could not drink of their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
    and frogs, which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the caterpillar,
    and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail,
    and their sycamores with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail,
    and their flocks to thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ He let loose on them his fierce anger,
    wrath, indignation, and distress,
    a company of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger;
    he did not spare them from death,
    but gave their lives over to the plague.
⁵¹ He smote all the first-born in Egypt,
    the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵² Then he led forth his people like sheep,
    and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;
    but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain which his right hand had won.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them;
    he apportioned them for a possession
    and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God,
    and did not observe his testimonies,
⁵⁷ but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
    they twisted like a deceitful bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
    they moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
⁵⁹ When God heard, he was full of wrath,
    and he utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the tent where he dwelt among men,
⁶¹ and delivered his power to captivity,
    his glory to the hand of the foe.
⁶² He gave his people over to the sword,
    and vented his wrath on his heritage.
⁶³ Fire devoured their young men,
    and their maidens had no marriage song.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
    and their widows made no lamentation.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    like a strong man shouting because of wine.
⁶⁶ And he put his adversaries to rout;
    he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph,
    he did not choose the tribe of E′phraim;
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
    like the earth, which he has founded for ever.
⁷⁰ He chose David his servant,
    and took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹ from tending the ewes that had young he brought him
    to be the shepherd of Jacob his people,
    of Israel his inheritance.
⁷² With upright heart he tended them,
    and guided them with skilful hand.