1Hear my teaching, my people,
listen to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in parables;
I will sing about hidden things about the past.

3These are things that we have heard and learned,
things that our ancestors have told us.

4We will not keep them from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation about the praiseworthy deeds of Yahweh,
his strength, and the wonders that he has done.

5For he established covenant decrees in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
that they were to teach them to their children.

6He commanded this so that the generation to come might know his decrees, the children not yet born,
who should tell them in turn to their own children.

7Then they would place their hope in God
and not forget his deeds
but keep his commandments.

8Then they would not be like their ancestors,
who were a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose hearts were not right,
and whose spirits were not committed and faithful to God.

9The Ephraimites were armed with bows,
but they turned back on the day of battle.

10They did not keep the covenant with God,
and they refused to obey his law.

11They forgot his deeds,
the wonderful things that he had shown them.

12They forgot the marvelous things he did in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the land of Zoan.

13He divided the sea and led them across it;
he made the waters to stand like walls.

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

15He split the rocks in the wilderness,
and he gave them water abundantly, enough to fill the depths of the sea.

16He made streams flow out of the rock
and made the water flow like rivers.

17Yet they continued to sin against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.

18They challenged God in their hearts
by asking for food to satisfy their appetites.

19They spoke against God;
they said, “Can God really lay out a table for us in the wilderness?

20See, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out
and streams overflowed.
But can he give bread also?
Will he provide meat for his people?”

21When Yahweh heard this, he was angry;
so his fire burned against Jacob,
and his anger attacked Israel,

22because they did not believe in God
and did not trust in his salvation.

23Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of the sky.

24He rained down manna for them to eat,
and gave them the grain from heaven.

25People ate the bread of angels.
He sent them food in abundance.

26He caused the east wind to blow in the sky,
and by his power he guided the south wind.

27He rained down meat on them like dust,
birds as numerous as the sands of the sea.

28They fell in the middle of their camp,
all around their tents.

29So they ate and were full.
He gave them what they craved.

30But they had not yet filled up;
their food was still in their mouths.

31Then God's anger attacked them
and killed the strongest of them.
He brought down the young men of Israel.

32Despite this, they continued to sin
and did not believe his wonderful deeds.

33Therefore God cut short their days;
their years were filled with terror.

34Whenever God afflicted them, they would start to seek him,
and they would return and look earnestly for him.

35They would call to mind that God was their rock
and that the Most High God was their rescuer.

36But they would flatter him with their mouth
and lie to him with their words.

37For their hearts were not firmly fixed on him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.

38Yet he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.
Yes, many times he held back his anger
and did not stir up all his wrath.

39He called to mind that they were made of flesh,
a wind that passes away and does not return.

40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the barren regions!

41Again and again they challenged God
and offended the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not think about his power,
how he had rescued them from the enemy

43when he performed his terrifying signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan.

44He turned the Egyptians' rivers to blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.

45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
and frogs that overran their land.

46He gave their crops to the grasshopper
and their labor to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with more hail.

48He rained hail on their cattle
and hurled lightning bolts at their livestock.

49The fierceness of his anger lashed out against them.
He sent wrath, fury, and trouble
like agents who bring disaster.

50He leveled a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.

51He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstborn of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52He led his own people out like sheep
and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.

53He led them secure and unafraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain that his right hand acquired.

55He drove out the nations from before them
and assigned them their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56Yet they challenged and defied the Most High God
and did not keep his solemn commands.

57They were unfaithful and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they were as undependable as a faulty bow.

58For they made him angry with their high places
and provoked him to jealous anger with their idols.

59When God heard this, he was angry
and completely rejected Israel.

60He abandoned the sanctuary of Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among people.

61He allowed his strength to be captured
and gave his glory into the enemy's hand.

62He handed his people over to the sword,
and he was angry with his heritage.

63Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs.

64Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.

65Then the Lord awakened as one from sleep,
like a warrior who shouts because of wine.

66He drove his adversaries back;
he put them to everlasting shame.

67He rejected the tent of Joseph,
and he did not chose the tribe of Ephraim.

68He chose the tribe of Judah
and Mount Zion that he loved.

69He built his sanctuary like the heavens,
like the earth that he has established forever.

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

71He took him from following the ewes with their young, and he brought him
to be shepherd of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, his heritage.

72David shepherded them with the integrity of his heart,
and he guided them with the skill of his hands.