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¹ A Lesson of Asaph. O my people, listen to my law; bow your ears to the words of my mouth.² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour forth dark sayings of old,³ those which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.⁴ We will not hide them from their sons; to declare to the coming generation the praises of Jehovah; yea, His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.⁵ For He raised a Testimony in Jacob, and He set a Law in Israel; which He commanded our fathers to make them known to their sons;⁶ so that a coming generation may know; sons shall be born; they shall rise up and tell their sons,⁷ so that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.⁸ And they shall not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not its heart; yea, whose spirit was not faithful with God.

⁹ The sons of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle.¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His Law.¹¹ And they forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them;¹² He did wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.¹³ He divided the sea and passed them through; and He caused the waters to stand in a heap.¹⁴ And He led them by a cloud in the day, and all the night with a light of fire.¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness and made them drink, as from great floods.¹⁶ And He brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to go down like rivers.¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against Him, to provoke the Most High in the desert.¹⁸ And they tested God in their heart, by asking food for their souls.¹⁹ And they spoke against God, saying, Shall God be able to set a table in the wilderness?²⁰ Behold! He struck the rock and the waters gushed out, and the torrents were overflowing. Can He also give bread? Will He provide flesh for His people?²¹ So Jehovah heard and He passed over, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and also anger went up against Israel,²² because they did not believe in God and trusted not in His salvation.²³ And He commanded the fine clouds above; and He opened the doors of the heavens;²⁴ and He rained on them manna to eat; yea, He gave the grain of the heavens to them.²⁵ Man ate the bread of the mighty; He sent them food to the full.²⁶ He made an east wind blow in the heavens; and He led out the south wind by His power.²⁷ Yea, He rained flesh on them like dust, and winged birds as the sand of the seas.²⁸ And He made them fall amidst their camp, all around to their tents.²⁹ They ate and were filled full; for their own lust He brought to them.³⁰ They were not estranged from their lust; their food was still in their mouths,³¹ and God's wrath came on them and killed the fattest of them; and He struck down the choice ones of Israel.³² In all this they sinned still; and they did not believe in His wonderful works;³³ and He ended their days in vanity, and their years in sudden terror.³⁴ When He killed them, then they sought Him; and they turned and searched for God.³⁵ So they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.³⁶ But they flattered Him with their mouths, and with their tongues lied to Him.³⁷ For their heart was not steadfast with Him; and they were not faithful in His covenant.³⁸ But He being merciful, atoned for iniquity and did not destroy; and He added to turn away His anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.³⁹ For He remembered that they were flesh, a breath passing away, and not returning.

⁴⁰ How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness, angering Him in the desert!⁴¹ Yea, they turned back and tested God, and pained the Holy One of Israel.⁴² They did not remember His hand, on the day He redeemed them from the enemy;⁴³ who set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan.⁴⁴ He turned their rivers into blood, also their streams that they might not drink.⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies against them, and they devoured them; also frogs, and they destroyed them.⁴⁶ He also gave their crops to the stripping locust, and their labor to the locust.⁴⁷ He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with sleet.⁴⁸ He gave their cattle up to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.⁴⁹ He sent the heat of His anger on them, fury and indignation and distress, a sending of angels of evils.⁵⁰ He leveled a path for His anger; He did not keep back their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague.⁵¹ And he struck all the first-born in Egypt, the firstfruits of strength in the tents of Ham;⁵² and He led His people forth like sheep; and He led them like a flock in the wilderness.⁵³ And he led them on safely, and they did not fear; but the sea flooded over their enemies.⁵⁴ He brought them to the border of His holy place; this mountain that His right hand had gained.⁵⁵ And He cast out the nations before them; and by a line He made a possession fall to them; and He made the tribes of Israel to live in their tents.⁵⁶ Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God; and they did not keep His testimonies;⁵⁷ but they turned back and betrayed, like their fathers; they veered aside like a deceitful bow.⁵⁸ For they enraged Him with their high places; and they provoked Him to jealousy with their molten images.⁵⁹ When God heard, and He passed over, and He utterly rejected Israel.⁶⁰ And He left the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He dwelt in among men;⁶¹ and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hands.⁶² And He gave His people to the sword, and was angry with His inheritance.⁶³ The fire burned up their young men; and their virgins were not praised.⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows were not able to weep.⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke, as one asleep, like a mighty man rejoicing with wine.⁶⁶ And He drove His enemies backward; He put them to a never-ending shame.⁶⁷ And He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;⁶⁸ but He elected the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved.⁶⁹ And He built His sanctuary like high places, like the earth He has founded forever.⁷⁰ He also chose His servant David, and took him from the folds of the flock;⁷¹ He brought him in from the suckling ewes ; He brought him to feed His people Jacob, and His inheritance, Israel.⁷² And he fed them in the integrity of his heart; and guided them in the skillfulness of his hands.