Read the Bible

¹ Listen, my people, to my teaching,
    and pay attention to what I say.
^2 (a)I am going to use wise sayings
    and explain mysteries from the past,
³     things we have heard and known,
    things that our ancestors told us.
⁴ We will not keep them from our children;
    we will tell the next generation
    about the Lord's power and his great deeds
    and the wonderful things he has done.

⁵ He gave laws to the people of Israel
    and commandments to the descendants of Jacob.
He instructed our ancestors
    to teach his laws to their children,
⁶ so that the next generation might learn them
    and in turn should tell their children.
⁷ In this way they also will put their trust in God
    and not forget what he has done,
    but always obey his commandments.
⁸ They will not be like their ancestors,
    a rebellious and disobedient people,
whose trust in God was never firm
    and who did not remain faithful to him.

⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with bows and arrows,
    ran away on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep their covenant with God;
    they refused to obey his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
    the miracles they had seen him perform.
^12 (b)While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles
    in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
^13 (c)He divided the sea and took them through it;
    he made the waters stand like walls.
^14 (d)By day he led them with a cloud
    and all night long with the light of a fire.
¹⁵ He split rocks open in the desert
    and gave them water from the depths.
^16 (e)He caused a stream to come out of the rock
    and made water flow like a river.

¹⁷ But they continued to sin against God,
    and in the desert they rebelled against the Most High.
^18 (f)They deliberately put God to the test
    by demanding the food they wanted.
¹⁹ They spoke against God and said,
    "Can God supply food in the desert?
²⁰ It is true that he struck the rock,
    and water flowed out in a torrent;
but can he also provide us with bread
    and give his people meat?"

²¹ And so the Lord was angry when he heard them;
    he attacked his people with fire,
    and his anger against them grew,
²² because they had no faith in him
    and did not believe that he would save them.
²³ But he spoke to the sky above
    and commanded its doors to open;
^24 (g)he gave them grain from heaven,
    by sending down manna for them to eat.
²⁵ So they ate the food of angels,
    and God gave them all they wanted.
²⁶ He also caused the east wind to blow,
    and by his power he stirred up the south wind;
²⁷ and to his people he sent down birds,
    as many as the grains of sand on the shore;
²⁸ they fell in the middle of the camp
    all around the tents.
²⁹ So the people ate and were satisfied;
    God gave them what they wanted.
³⁰ But they had not yet satisfied their craving
    and were still eating,
³¹ when God became angry with them
    and killed their strongest men,
    the best young men of Israel.

³² In spite of all this the people kept sinning;
    in spite of his miracles they did not trust him.
³³ So he ended their days like a breath
    and their lives with sudden disaster.
³⁴ Whenever he killed some of them,
    the rest would turn to him;
    they would repent and pray earnestly to him.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their protector,
    that the Almighty came to their aid.
³⁶ But their words were all lies;
    nothing they said was sincere.
^37 (h)They were not loyal to him;
    they were not faithful to their covenant with him.

³⁸ But God was merciful to his people.
    He forgave their sin
    and did not destroy them.
Many times he held back his anger
    and restrained his fury.
³⁹ He remembered that they were only mortal beings,
    like a wind that blows by and is gone.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the desert;
    how many times they made him sad!
⁴¹ Again and again they put God to the test
    and brought pain to the Holy God of Israel.
⁴² They forgot his great power
    and the day when he saved them from their enemies
⁴³     and performed his mighty acts and miracles
    in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
^44 (i)He turned the rivers into blood,
    and the Egyptians had no water to drink.
^45 (j)He sent flies among them, that tormented them,
    and frogs that ruined their land.
^46 (k)He sent locusts to eat their crops
    and to destroy their fields.
^47 (l)He killed their grapevines with hail
    and their fig trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He killed their cattle with hail
    and their flocks with lightning.^[b]
49 He caused them great distress
    by pouring out his anger and fierce rage,
    which came as messengers of death.
⁵⁰ He did not restrain his anger
    or spare their lives,
    but killed them with a plague.
^51 (m)He killed the first-born sons
    of all the families of Egypt.

^52 (n)Then he led his people out like a shepherd
    and guided them through the desert.
^53 (o)He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
    but the sea came rolling over their enemies.
^54 (p)He brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountains which he himself conquered.
^55 (q)He drove out the inhabitants as his people advanced;
    he divided their land among the tribes of Israel
    and gave their homes to his people.

^56 (r)But they rebelled against Almighty God
    and put him to the test.
They did not obey his commandments,
⁵⁷     but were rebellious and disloyal like their ancestors,
    unreliable as a crooked arrow.
⁵⁸ They angered him with their heathen places of worship,
    and with their idols they made him furious.
⁵⁹ God was angry when he saw it,
    so he rejected his people completely.
^60 (s)He abandoned his tent in Shiloh,^[c]
    the home where he had lived among us.
^61 (t)He allowed our enemies to capture the Covenant Box,
    the symbol of his power and glory.
⁶² He was angry with his own people
    and let them be killed by their enemies.
⁶³ Young men were killed in war,
    and young women had no one to marry.
⁶⁴ Priests died by violence,
    and their widows were not allowed to mourn.

⁶⁵ At last the Lord woke up as though from sleep;
    he was like a strong man excited by wine.
⁶⁶ He drove his enemies back
    in lasting and shameful defeat.
⁶⁷ But he rejected the descendants of Joseph;
    he did not select the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ Instead he chose the tribe of Judah
    and Mount Zion, which he dearly loves.
⁶⁹ There he built his Temple
    like his home in heaven;
he made it firm like the earth itself,
    secure for all time.

^70 (u)He chose his servant David;
    he took him from the pastures,
⁷¹     where he looked after his flocks,
    and he made him king of Israel,
    the shepherd of the people of God.
⁷² David took care of them with unselfish devotion
    and led them with skill.