Maschil of Asaph.

¹Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

³Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

⁵For 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:

⁶That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

⁷That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

⁸And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

¹¹And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

¹²Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

¹⁴In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

¹⁸And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

¹⁹Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

²¹Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

²²Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

²³Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

²⁵Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

²⁶He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

²⁷He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

²⁸And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

²⁹So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

³⁰They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

³²For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

³³Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

³⁴When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

³⁶Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

⁴³How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

⁴⁴And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

⁵⁰He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

⁵¹And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

⁵²But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

⁶²He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷²So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.