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¹ AN INSTRUCTION OF ASAPH. Give ear, O my people, to my law, || Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth.² I open my mouth with an allegory, || I bring forth hidden things of old,³ That we have heard and know, || And our fathers have recounted to us.⁴ We do not hide from their sons, || Recounting praises of YHWH to a later generation, || And His strength, and His wonders that He has done.⁵ And He raises up a testimony in Jacob, || And has placed a law in Israel, || That He commanded our fathers, || To make them known to their sons.⁶ So that a later generation knows, || Sons who are born, rise and recount to their sons,⁷ And place their confidence in God, || And do not forget the doings of God, || But keep His commands.⁸ And they are not like their fathers, || A generation apostatizing and being rebellious, || A generation—it has not prepared its heart, || Nor [is] its spirit steadfast with God.

⁹ Sons of Ephraim—armed bearers of bow, || Have turned in a day of conflict.¹⁰ They have not kept the covenant of God, || And they have refused to walk in His law,¹¹ And they forget His doings, || And His wonders that He showed them.¹² He has done wonders before their fathers, || In the land of Egypt—the field of Zoan.¹³ He cleft a sea, and causes them to pass over, || Indeed, He causes waters to stand as a heap.¹⁴ And leads them with a cloud by day, || And with a light of fire all the night.¹⁵ He cleaves rocks in a wilderness, || And gives drink—as the great deep.¹⁶ And brings out streams from a rock, || And causes waters to come down as rivers.¹⁷ And they still add to sin against Him, || To provoke the Most High in the dry place.¹⁸ And they try God in their heart, || To ask food for their lust.¹⁹ And they speak against God—they said: "Is God able to array a table in a wilderness?"²⁰ Behold, He has struck a rock, || And waters flow, indeed, streams overflow. "Also, [is] He able to give bread? Does He prepare flesh for His people?"²¹ Therefore YHWH has heard, || And He shows Himself angry, || And fire has been kindled against Jacob, || And anger has also gone up against Israel,²² For they have not believed in God, || Nor have they trusted in His salvation.²³ And He commands clouds from above, || Indeed, He has opened doors of the heavens.²⁴ And He rains manna on them to eat, || Indeed, He has given grain of the heavens to them.²⁵ Each has eaten food of the mighty, || He sent provision to them to satiety.²⁶ He causes an east wind to journey in the heavens, || And leads a south wind by His strength,²⁷ And He rains on them flesh as dust, || And as sand of the seas—winged bird,²⁸ And causes [it] to fall in the midst of His camp, || Around His dwelling places.²⁹ And they eat, and are greatly satisfied, || And He brings their desire to them.³⁰ They have not been estranged from their desire, || Their food [is] yet in their mouth,³¹ And the anger of God has gone up against them, || And He slays among their fat ones, || And He caused youths of Israel to bend.³² With all this they have sinned again, || And have not believed in His wonders.³³ And He consumes their days in vanity, || And their years in trouble.³⁴ If He slew them, then they sought Him, || And turned back, and earnestly sought God,³⁵ And they remember that God [is] their rock, || And God Most High their redeemer.³⁶ And they deceive Him with their mouth, || And lie to Him with their tongue,³⁷ And their heart has not been right with Him, || And they have not been steadfast in His covenant.³⁸ And He, the Merciful One, pardons iniquity, and does not destroy, || And has often turned back His anger, || And does not awaken all His fury.³⁹ And He remembers that they [are] flesh, || A wind going on—and it does not return.

⁴⁰ How often do they provoke Him in the wilderness, || Grieve Him in the desolate place?⁴¹ Indeed, they turn back, and try God, || And have limited the Holy One of Israel.⁴² They have not remembered His hand || The day He ransomed them from the adversary.⁴³ When He set His signs in Egypt, || And His wonders in the field of Zoan,⁴⁴ And He turns their streams to blood, || And they do not drink their floods.⁴⁵ He sends among them the beetle, and it consumes them, || And the frog, and it destroys them,⁴⁶ And gives their increase to the caterpillar, || And their labor to the locust.⁴⁷ He destroys their vine with hail, || And their sycamores with frost,⁴⁸ And delivers their beasts up to the hail, || And their livestock to the burning flames.⁴⁹ He sends on them the fury of His anger, || Wrath, and indignation, and distress—A discharge of evil messengers.⁵⁰ He ponders a path for His anger, || He did not keep back their soul from death, || Indeed, He delivered up their life to the pestilence.⁵¹ And He strikes every firstborn in Egypt, || The first-fruit of the strong in tents of Ham.⁵² And causes His people to journey as a flock, || And guides them as a drove in a wilderness,⁵³ And He leads them confidently, || And they have not been afraid, || And the sea has covered their enemies.⁵⁴ And He brings them to the border of His sanctuary, || This mountain His right hand had acquired,⁵⁵ And casts out nations from before them, || And causes them to fall in the line of inheritance, || And causes the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents,⁵⁶ And they tempt and provoke God Most High, || And have not kept His testimonies.⁵⁷ And they turn back, || And deal treacherously like their fathers, || They have been turned like a deceitful bow,⁵⁸ And make Him angry with their high places, || And make Him zealous with their carved images,⁵⁹ God has heard, and shows Himself angry. And kicks exceedingly against Israel.⁶⁰ And He leaves the Dwelling Place of Shiloh, || The tent He had placed among men,⁶¹ And He gives His strength to captivity, || And His beauty into the hand of an adversary,⁶² And delivers His people up to the sword, || And showed Himself angry with His inheritance.⁶³ Fire has consumed His young men, || And His virgins have not been praised.⁶⁴ His priests have fallen by the sword, || And their widows do not weep.⁶⁵ And the Lord wakes as a sleeper, || As a mighty one crying aloud from wine.⁶⁶ And He strikes His adversaries backward, || He has put a continuous reproach on them,⁶⁷ And He kicks against the tent of Joseph, || And has not fixed on the tribe of Ephraim.⁶⁸ And He chooses the tribe of Judah, || With Mount Zion that He loved,⁶⁹ And builds His sanctuary as a high place, || Like the earth, He founded it for all time.⁷⁰ And He fixes on His servant David, || And takes him from the folds of a flock,⁷¹ He has brought him in from behind suckling ones, || To rule over Jacob His people, || And over Israel His inheritance.⁷² And he rules them according to the integrity of his heart, || And leads them by the skillfulness of his hands!