Bible Reading Plan

¹ My people, hear my instruction;
listen to what I say.^(b)
2 I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past^(c)—
³ things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us.^(d)
4 We must not hide them from their children,
but must tell a future generation
the praises of the Lord ,
His might, and the wonderful works
He has performed.^(e)
5 He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
to teach to their children^(f)
6 so that a future generation—
children yet to be born—might know.
They were to rise and tell their children^(g)
7 so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God's works,
but keep His commands.^(h)
8 Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.⁽ⁱ⁾

⁹ The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.^(j)
10 They did not keep God's covenant
and refused to live by His law.^(k)
11 They forgot what He had done,
the wonderful works He had shown them.^(l)
12 He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, the region of Zoan.^(m)
13 He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.^(n)
14 He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.^(o)
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.^(p)
16 He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.^(q)

¹⁷ But they continued to sin against Him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.^(r)
18 They deliberately^[a] tested God,
demanding the food they craved.^(s)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
"Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
²⁰ Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.^(t)
But can He also provide bread
or furnish meat for His people?"^(u)
21 Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel^(v)
22 because they did not believe God
or rely on His salvation.^(w)
23 He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.^(x)
24 He rained manna for them to eat;
He gave them grain from heaven.^(y)
25 People^[b] ate the bread of angels.^[c]
He sent them an abundant supply of food.^(z)
26 He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by His might.^(aa)
27 He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
²⁸ He made them fall in His camp,
all around His tent.^{[d][e](ab)
29} They ate and were completely satisfied,
for He gave them what they craved.^(ac)
30 Before they had satisfied their desire,
while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ God's anger flared up against them,
and He killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel's choice young men.^(ad)

³² Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe His wonderful works.^(ae)
33 He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.^(af)
34 When He killed some of them,
the rest began to seek Him;
they repented and searched for God.^(ag)
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their Redeemer.^(ah)
36 But they deceived Him with their mouths,
they lied to Him with their tongues,^(ai)
37 their hearts were insincere toward Him,
and they were unfaithful to His covenant.^(aj)
38 Yet He was compassionate;
He atoned for^[f] their guilt
and did not destroy them.
He often turned His anger aside
and did not unleash^[g] all His wrath.^(ak)
39 He remembered that they were only flesh,
a wind that passes and does not return.^(al)

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against Him
in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert.
⁴¹ They constantly tested God^(am)
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.^(an)
42 They did not remember His power shown
on the day He redeemed them from the foe,^(ao)
43 when He performed His miraculous signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the region of Zoan.^(ap)
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.^(aq)
45 He sent among them swarms of flies,^(ar)
which fed on them,
and frogs, which devastated them.^(as)
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.^(at)
47 He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
⁴⁸ He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.^(au)
49 He sent His burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity—
a band of deadly messengers.^[h](av)
50 He cleared a path for His anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.^(aw)
51 He struck all the firstborn^(ax) in Egypt,
the first progeny of the tents of Ham.^[i](ay)
52 He led His people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.^(az)
53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.^(ba)
54 He brought them to His holy land,
to the mountain His right hand acquired.^(bb)
55 He drove out nations before them.^(bc)
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.^(bd)

⁵⁶ But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep His decrees.^(be)
57 They treacherously turned away like their fathers;
they became warped like a faulty bow.^(bf)
58 They enraged Him with their high places
and provoked His jealousy with their carved images.^(bg)
59 God heard and became furious;
He completely rejected Israel.^(bh)
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where He resided among men.^[j](bi)
61 He gave up His strength^[k] to captivity
and His splendor to the hand of a foe.^(bj)
62 He surrendered His people to the sword
because He was enraged with His heritage.^(bk)
63 Fire consumed His chosen young men,
and His young women had no wedding songs.^[l](bl)
64 His priests fell by the sword,
but the^[m] widows could not lament.^[n](bm)

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.^(bn)
66 He beat back His foes;
He gave them lasting shame.^(bo)
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.^(bp)
69 He built His sanctuary like the heights,^[o]
like the earth that He established forever.^(bq)
70 He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;^(br)
71 He brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over His people Jacob—
over Israel, His inheritance.^(bs)
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.^(bt)