Book of Common Prayer

^[c]Give ear, my people, to my teaching;
    pay attention to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth in parables^[d]
    and expound the mysteries of the past.
^3 [e]These things we have heard and know,
    for our ancestors have related them to us.
⁴ We will not conceal them from our children;
    we will relate them to the next generation,
the glorious and powerful deeds of the Lord
    and the wonders he has performed.
⁵ He instituted a decree in Jacob
    and established a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to make known to their descendants,
⁶ so that they would be known to future generations,
    to children yet to be born.
In turn they were to tell their children,
⁷     so that they would place their trust in God,
and never forget his works
    but keep his commandments.
⁸ Nor were they to imitate their ancestors,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart^[f] was not steadfast
    and whose spirit was unfaithful to God.
^9 [g]The Ephraimites, who were skilled archers,
    fled in terror on the day of battle.^[h]
10 They failed to keep God’s covenant
    and refused to live in accord with his law.
¹¹ They forgot the works he had done,
    the wonders he had performed for them.
¹² He worked marvels in the sight of their ancestors
    in the land of Egypt, in the Plain of Zoan.^[i]
13 He divided the sea so that they could pass,
    heaping up the waters as a mound.
¹⁴ He led them with a cloud by day,
    and with the light of a fire by night.
¹⁵ He split open rocks in the wilderness
    and gave them water to drink from limitless depths.
¹⁶ He brought forth streams from a rocky crag
    and caused water to flow down in torrents.
^17 [j]But they still sinned^[k] against him,
    rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
¹⁸ They tested God’s patience
    by demanding the food they craved.^[l]
19 They railed against God, saying:
    “Can God provide a banquet in the wilderness?
²⁰ Certainly when he struck the rock,
    water gushed forth and the streams overflowed.
But can he also give us bread
    or provide meat for his people?”^[m]
21 When the Lord heard this, he was filled with anger;
    his fire blazed forth against Jacob,
    and his wrath mounted against Israel,
²² because they had no faith in God
    and put no trust in his saving might.
²³ Yet he issued a command to the skies above
    and opened the doors of the heavens.
²⁴ He rained down manna for them to eat,
    giving them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Mere mortals ate the bread of angels;^[n]
    he sent them an abundance of provisions.
²⁶ He made the east wind blow in the heavens
    and brought forth the south wind in force.
²⁷ He rained down meat upon them like dust,
    winged birds like the sands on the seashore.
²⁸ He let them fall within the camp,
    all around their tents.
²⁹ They ate and were completely satisfied,
    for he had given them what they desired.
³⁰ But when they did not curb their cravings,
    even while the food was in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God blazed up against them;
    he slew their strongest warriors
    and laid low the chosen of Israel.
^32 [o]Despite this, they continued to sin;
    they put no faith in his wonders.
³³ So he brought their days to an abrupt end
    and cut off their years with sudden terror.^[p]
34 When death afflicted them,
    they sought him;
    they searched eagerly for God.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their Rock,^[q]
    that God Most High was their Redeemer.
³⁶ However, while they flattered him with their mouths
    and lied to him with their tongues,
³⁷ their hearts^[r] were not right with him,
    nor were they faithful to his covenant.
³⁸ Even so, he was compassionate toward them;
    he forgave their guilt
    and did not destroy them.
Time after time he held back his anger,
    unwilling to stir up his rage.
³⁹ For he remembered that they were flesh,
    like a breath of wind that does not return.
^40 [s]How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and pained him in the wasteland.
⁴¹ Again and again they tested God’s patience,
    provoking the Holy One of Israel.^[t]
42 They did not keep in mind his power
    or the day when he delivered them from their oppressor,
⁴³ when he manifested his wonders in Egypt
    and his portents in the Plain of Zoan.
^44 [u]He turned their rivers into blood;
    they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
    and frogs that devastated them.
⁴⁶ He assigned their harvest to the caterpillars
    and their produce to the locusts.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamore trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He exposed their cattle to hailstones
    and their flocks to bolts of lightning.
⁴⁹ He sent upon them his blazing anger,
    wrath, fury, and hostility,
    a band of destroying angels.^[v]
50 He gave his anger free rein;
    he did not spare them from death
    but delivered their lives to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
    the firstfruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham.^[w]
52 Then he led forth his people like sheep
    and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them in safety, and they were not afraid,
    while the sea engulfed their enemies.
⁵⁴ He brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain his right hand had purchased.
⁵⁵ He drove out the nations before them,
    apportioning a heritage for each of them
    and settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.^[x]
56 [y]Even so, they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High,
    refusing to observe his decrees.
⁵⁷ They turned away and were disloyal like their ancestors;
    they were as unreliable as a faulty bow.
⁵⁸ They angered him with their high places^[z]
    and made him jealous with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God saw this, he became enraged
    and rejected Israel totally.^[aa]
60 He forsook his dwelling in Shiloh,^[ab]
    the tent where he dwelt among mortals.
⁶¹ He surrendered his might into captivity
    and his glory^[ac] into the hands of the enemy.
⁶² He abandoned his people to the sword
    and vented his wrath on his own heritage.
⁶³ Fire devoured their young men,
    and their maidens had no wedding song.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
    and their widows sang no lamentation.
^65 [ad]Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,
    like a warrior flushed from the effects of wine.
⁶⁶ He struck his enemies and routed them,
    inflicting perpetual shame on them.
⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph
    and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ Rather, he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion,^[ae] which he loved.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
    and like the earth^[af] that he founded forever.
⁷⁰ He chose David^[ag] to be his servant
    and took him from the sheepfolds.
⁷¹ From tending sheep he brought him
    to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
    of Israel, his heritage.
⁷² He shepherded them with an unblemished heart
    and guided them with a knowing hand.^[ah]