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¹ Maschil of Asaph. ² I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;³ That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,⁴ We will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, ⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, ⁶ That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children,⁷ That they might put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;⁸ And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation;

⁹ The children of Ephraim were as archers handling the bow, that turned back in the day of battle.¹⁰ They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;¹¹ And they forgot His doings, and His wondrous works that He had shown them.¹² Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.¹³ He cleaved the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.¹⁴ By day also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.¹⁵ He cleaved rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the great deep.¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.¹⁷ Yet went they on still to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.¹⁸ And they tried God in their heart by asking food for their craving.¹⁹ Yea, they spoke against God; they said: 'Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?²⁰ Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; ²¹ Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth; ²² Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.²³ And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;²⁴ And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven.²⁵ Man did eat the bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions to the full.²⁶ He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven; and by His power He brought on the south wind.²⁷ He caused flesh also to rain upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas;²⁸ And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings.²⁹ So they did eat, and were well filled; and He gave them that which they craved.³⁰ They were not estranged from their craving, their food was yet in their mouths,³¹ When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the lustieth among them, ³² For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His wondrous works.³³ Therefore He ended their days as a breath, and their years in terror.³⁴ When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly.³⁵ And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.³⁶ But they beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongue.³⁷ For their heart was not stedfast with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.³⁸ But He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity, and destroyeth not; ³⁹ So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰ How oft did they rebel against Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!⁴¹ And still again they tried God, and set bounds to the Holy One of Israel.⁴² They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He redeemed them from the adversary.⁴³ How He set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan;⁴⁴ And turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink their streams.⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.⁴⁶ He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to fiery bolts.⁴⁹ He sent forth upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a sending of messengers of evil.⁵⁰ He levelled a path for His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;⁵¹ And smote all the first-born in Egypt, the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;⁵² But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.⁵³ And He led them safely, and they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.⁵⁴ And He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain, which His right hand had gotten.⁵⁵ He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, ⁵⁶ Yet they tried and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not His testimonies;⁵⁷ But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.⁵⁸ For they provoked Him with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.⁵⁹ God heard, and was wroth, and He greatly abhorred Israel;⁶⁰ And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had made to dwell among men;⁶¹ And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the adversary's hand.⁶² He gave His people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with His inheritance.⁶³ Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins had no marriage-song.⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.⁶⁵ Then the Lord awaked as one asleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine.⁶⁶ And He smote His adversaries backward; He put upon them a perpetual reproach.⁶⁷ Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.⁶⁹ And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He hath founded for ever.⁷⁰ He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;⁷¹ From following the ewes that give suck He brought him, to be shepherd over Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.⁷² So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart; and lead them by the skilfulness of his hands.