Read the Bible

¹ Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,³ Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.⁴ We will not hide them from their sons, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, And his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their sons;⁶ That the generation to come might know [them], even the sons that should be born; Who should arise and tell [them] to their sons,⁷ That they might set their hope 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, A generation that did not set their heart aright, And whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹ The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying 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 doings, And his wondrous works that he had shown them.¹² He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.¹³ He split the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as a heap.¹⁴ In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, And all the night with a light of fire.¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.¹⁷ Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.¹⁹ Yes, they spoke against God; They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?²⁰ Look, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also went up against Israel;²² Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in his salvation.²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven;²⁴ And he rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from heaven.²⁵ Man ate the bread of the mighty: He sent them food to the full.²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; And by his power he guided the south wind.²⁷ He rained flesh also on them as the dust, And winged birds as the sand of the seas:²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their habitations.²⁹ So they ate, and were well filled; And he gave them their own desire.³⁰ They were not estranged from that which they desired, Their food was yet in their mouths,³¹ When the anger of God went up against them, And slew of the fattest of them, And smote down the young men of Israel.³² For all this they sinned still, And did not believe in his wondrous works.³³ Therefore their days he consumed in vanity, And their years in terror.³⁴ When he slew them, then they inquired after him; And they returned and sought God earnestly.³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their redeemer.³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue.³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: Yes, many a time he turned his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath.³⁹ And he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and does not come again.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, And grieved him in the desert!⁴¹ And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.⁴² They did not remember 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, And their streams, so that they could not drink.⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.⁴⁶ He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, And their labor to 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 hot thunderbolts.⁴⁹ He cast on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,⁵¹ And smote all the first-born in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.⁵² But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.⁵³ And he led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.⁵⁴ And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.⁵⁵ He drove out the nations also before them, And allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And did not keep 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 to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.⁵⁹ When God heard [this], he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel;⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among man;⁶¹ And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary's hand.⁶² He gave his people over also to the sword, And was angry 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 awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.⁶⁶ And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach.⁶⁷ Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And did not choose 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 has established forever.⁷⁰ He chose David also his slave, And took him from the sheepfolds:⁷¹ From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.⁷² So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.