1Listen to what I have to teach you, my people; hear what I have to say.
2I will tell you wise sayings; 269I will explain mysteries from the past
3that we have heard before and reflected on; stories our forefathers passed down to us.
4We will not keep them from our children; we will tell the next generation about God's marvelous actions—about his power and the amazing things he has done.
5He gave his laws to the descendants of Jacob; his instructions to the people of Israel. He commanded our forefathers to teach them to their children,
6so that the next generation—children yet to be born—would understand and grow up to teach their children.
7In this way they should place their trust in God and not forget what God has done, and keep his commandments.
8Then they would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation that was untrustworthy and unfaithful.
9The soldiers of Ephraim, 270though armed with bows, ran away on the day of battle.
10They did not keep God's agreement, and refused to follow his laws.
11They ignored 271what he had done, and the amazing things he had shown them—
12the miracles he had performed for their forefathers near Zoan 272in Egypt.
13He split the sea in two and led them through, making the water stand like walls on either side. 273
14He led them with a cloud by day, and by night with a light of fire.
15He split open rocks in the desert to give his people plenty to drink, water as deep as the ocean.
16He made streams flow from the stone; water rushing down like rivers!
17But they repeatedly sinned against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18They deliberately provoked God by demanding the foods they longed for.
19They insulted God by saying, “Can God provide food 274here in the desert?
20Yes, he can strike a rock so that water gushes out like flowing rivers, but can he give us bread? Can he supply his people with meat?”
21When he heard this, the Lord became very angry, burning like fire against the descendants of Jacob, furious with the people of Israel,
22for they didn't believe in God and didn't trust him to take care of them.
23Even so he commanded the skies above and the doors of heaven to open,
24and he made manna rain down on them to eat, giving them bread from heaven.
25Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them more than enough food.
26He sent the east wind blowing across the sky; by his power he drove the south wind. 275
27He rained down meat on them as plentiful as dust; birds as numerous as sand on a beach.
28He made them fall right in the middle of their camp, all around where they were living.
29They ate until they were full. He gave them the food they longed for.
30But before they satisfied their appetite, while the meat was still in their mouths,
31God became angry with them and he killed their strongest men, striking them down in the prime of life.
32Despite all this they went right on sinning. Despite the miracles, they refused to trust him.
33So he snuffed out their futile lives, bringing them to an end in terror.
34When he began killing them, the rest came back to God in repentance, praying to him.
35They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their Savior.
36They flattered him by what they told him, but they were only lying.
37Deep down they were not sincere, and did not keep the agreement 276they had with him.
38But being compassionate he pardoned their guilt and did not destroy all of them. He often held back his anger—he did not pour out all his fury.
39He remembered their mortality—that they were like a puff of wind that would not return.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, giving him grief in the desert!
41Again and again they provoked God, causing pain to the Holy One of Israel.
42They did not remember his strength when he rescued them from their oppressors,
43performing miracles in Egypt, doing wonderful things on the plain of Zoan.
44There he turned their 277rivers and their streams into blood so that no one could drink from them.
45He sent flies among them to destroy 278them, and frogs to ruin everything.
46He gave their crops to locusts; everything they worked had for was taken by locusts. 279
47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their fig trees with freezing rain.
48He handed over their cattle to hail and their flocks to lightning bolts.
49He poured out on them his fierce anger—rage and hostility and anguish—sending a band of destroying angels against them.
50He sent his unrestrained anger against them; he did not spare them from death, handing them over to the plague.
51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the first to be conceived in the tents of Ham. 280
52But he led out his people like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.
53He led them to safety, and they were not afraid. He drowned their enemies in the sea.
54He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this mountainous land that he had conquered for them.
55He drove out the heathen nations before them. He divided up the land for them to own. He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56But they provoked God Most High, rebelling against him. They did not follow what he had told them.
57Just like their forefathers they turned away from God and were unfaithful to him, as twisted as a defective bow. 281
58They made him angry with their pagan high places of worship; they made him jealous with their idols.
59When God heard their worship he became furious and he totally rejected Israel.
60He abandoned his place at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he lived among the people.
61He surrendered the Ark of his power, allowing it to be captured; handing it over into enemy hands.
62He handed over his people to be slaughtered by the sword; he was furious with his chosen people.
63Their young men were destroyed by fire; their young women had no wedding songs. 282
64Their priests were killed by the sword; their widows were unable to mourn.
65Then the Lord woke up as if from sleep, as a warrior sobering up from drinking wine.
66He defeated his enemies, striking them on the back, causing them everlasting shame.
67He rejected the descendants of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. 283
68Instead he chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion which he loves.
69There he built his sanctuary, high like the heavens, on earth that he made to last forever.
70He chose his servant David, taking him from the sheep pens,
71taking him from caring for the sheep and lambs to be a shepherd to the descendants of Jacob—God's special people, Israel.
72Like a shepherd, he took care of them with sincere devotion, leading them with skillful hands.
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