Beginning

¹ Give ear, O my people, to my instruction.
Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth to share a lesson.
I will speak about puzzling problems from long ago,
³ things we have heard and known,
things our fathers have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders that he has done.
⁵ He set up testimony for Jacob.
In Israel he established the law.
He commanded our fathers to make it known to their children.
⁶ Then the next generation would know it,
even the children not yet born.
They would rise up and tell their children.
⁷ Then they would put their confidence in God,
and they would not forget the deeds of God,
but they would keep his commands.
⁸ Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation that did not keep their hearts steadfast,
whose spirits were not faithful to God.

⁹ The tribe of Ephraim, equipped and armed with bows,
    deserted on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant, and they refused to walk in his law.
¹¹ They forgot his deeds, the wonders he had shown to them.

¹² In the presence of their fathers he had performed a wonder,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
¹³ He split the sea and let them cross through it.
He made the water stand like a wall.
¹⁴ He led them with the cloud by day
and all through the night with light from the fire.
¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness,
and he let them drink water as plentiful as the deep sea.
¹⁶ He brought streams out of the rocky cliff.
He made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ But they continued to sin against him even more,
    by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their hearts by demanding food for their cravings.
¹⁹ Then they spoke against God.
They said, “Is God able to set a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ Sure, he struck the rock and water flowed out,
and stream beds overflowed,
but can he really give us bread?
Can he really supply meat for his people?”

²¹ Then the Lord heard, and he showed his anger.
Fire broke out against Jacob,
and his anger rose against Israel,
²² because they did not believe in God,
and they did not trust in his salvation.

²³ Nevertheless, he gave a command to the skies above,
and he opened the doors of the heavens.
²⁴ He rained down manna for them to eat,
and he gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Each of them ate the bread of the mighty ones.
He sent them all the food they could eat.
²⁶ He sent out the east wind from the heavens,
and he led out the south wind by his power.
²⁷ Then he rained meat down on them like dust,
and flying birds like sand on the seashore.
²⁸ He made the birds fall down inside their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
²⁹ Then they ate until they had more than enough,
for he had brought them what they craved.
³⁰ They had not yet turned away from what they craved.
Their food was still in their mouths.
³¹ Then God’s anger rose up against them.
He killed the strongest among them.
He cut down the best young men of Israel.
³² In spite of all this, they kept sinning,
and they did not believe in his wonders.
³³ So he ended their days in frustration^[a]
and their years in terror.
³⁴ Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him.
Then they turned and sought God.
³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
³⁶ But then they would deceive him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they would lie to him.
³⁷ Their hearts were not committed to him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he was compassionate.
He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them.
Many times he restrained his anger,
and he did not stir up his full wrath.
³⁹ He still remembered that they were only flesh,
like a wind that goes by and does not return.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they grieved him in the wasteland!
⁴¹ They repeatedly put God to the test.
They provoked^[b] the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They did not remember the power of his hand—
the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
⁴³ when he displayed his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
⁴⁴ when he turned their rivers to blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent against them a swarm of flies that bit them.
Then he sent frogs that destroyed them.
⁴⁶ Then he gave their crops to the grasshopper.
He gave what they worked for to the locust.
⁴⁷ He killed their grapevines with hail,
and their sycamore fig trees with sleet.
⁴⁸ Then he turned over their cattle to hail,
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
⁴⁹ He sent against them his burning anger,
his wrath and indignation and distress
    by sending destroying angels.^[c]
50 He prepared a path for his anger.
He did not spare their lives from death,
but he delivered their lives to the plague.
⁵¹ Then he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruit of their virility in the tents of Ham.
⁵² But he led his people out like sheep.
He led them like a flock through the wilderness.
⁵³ Then he guided them safely, so they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴ Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain which his right hand had taken.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them.
He marked the boundaries of their inheritance,
and he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ But they tested him.
They rebelled against God Most High,
and they did not keep his testimonies.
⁵⁷ Yes, they turned aside and were treacherous like their fathers.
They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
⁵⁸ Then they angered him with their high places,
and they made him jealous with their idols.

⁵⁹ God heard, and he showed his anger.
He completely rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ So he abandoned his dwelling in Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelled among people.
⁶¹ So he sent the symbol of his strength^[d] away into captivity.
He gave his splendor into the hand of the foe.
⁶² He also handed over his people to the sword,
and he showed his anger against his possession.
⁶³ Fire consumed their best young men,
so their virgins were not praised in wedding songs.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows did not weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke like someone who has been sleeping,
like a warrior overcome by wine.
⁶⁶ Then he drove back his foes.
He gave them everlasting shame.
⁶⁷ Then he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ But he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
⁶⁹ Then he built up his sanctuary like the heights,
like the world that he established for all time.
⁷⁰ Then he chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹ He brought him from following the mother sheep
    to shepherd his people Jacob
    and his possession Israel.
⁷² So he shepherded them with a sincere heart,
and with skillful hands he led them.

¹ God, the nations have invaded your possession.
They have profaned your holy temple.
They have reduced Jerusalem to a heap of ruins.
² They have left the corpses of your servants
    as food for the birds of the sky.
They have given the flesh of your favored ones to the wild animals.
³ They have poured out their blood like water all over Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
⁴ We are subjected to contempt by our neighbors,
to mockery and ridicule by those around us.

⁵ How long, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever?
How long will your jealous anger burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms that do not call on your name,
⁷ because they have devoured Jacob,
and they have destroyed his pastureland.^[e]
8 Do not charge the guilt of our fathers against us.
Hurry, let your compassion come to meet us,
for we are very weak.
⁹ God, who saves us, help us for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and make atonement for our sins for your name’s sake.
¹⁰ Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes, display to the nations
    vengeance for the poured-out blood of your servants.
¹¹ May the groaning of the prisoner come before you.
According to the great strength of your arm
    preserve those doomed to death.
¹² Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times as much scorn
    as the scorn that they directed at you, Lord.
¹³ Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will praise you forever.
From generation to generation we will recount your praise.