78
God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.
1 AListen, O my people, to my
1instruction;
BIncline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will
Aopen my mouth in a parable;
I will utter
Bdark sayings of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
And
Aour fathers have told us.
4 We will
Anot conceal them from their children,
But
Btell to the generation to come the praises of the Loʀᴅ,
And His strength and His
Cwondrous works that He has done.
5 For He established a
Atestimony in Jacob
And appointed a
Blaw in Israel,
Which He
Ccommanded our fathers
That they should
1Dteach them to their children,
6 AThat the generation to come might know,
even Bthe children
yet to be born,
That they may arise and
Ctell
them to their children,
7 That they should put their confidence in God
And
Anot forget the works of God,
But
Bkeep His commandments,
8 And
Anot be like their fathers,
A
Bstubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that
Cdid not
1prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not
Dfaithful to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim
1were
Aarchers equipped with bows,
Yet Bthey turned back in the day of battle.
10 They
Adid not keep the covenant of God
And refused to
Bwalk in His law;
11 They
Aforgot His deeds
And His
1miracles that He had shown them.
12 AHe wrought wonders before their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the
Bfield of Zoan.
13 He
Adivided the sea and caused them to pass through,
And He made the waters stand
Bup like a heap.
14 Then He led them with the cloud by
Aday
And all the night with a
Blight of fire.
15 He
Asplit the rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
16 He
Abrought forth streams also from the rock
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 Yet they still continued to sin against Him,
To
Arebel against the Most High in the desert.
18 And in their heart they
Aput God to the test
By asking
Bfood according to their desire.
19 Then they spoke against God;
They said, “
ACan God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 “Behold, He
Astruck the rock so that waters gushed out,
And streams were overflowing;
Can He give bread also?
Will He provide
1Bmeat for His people?”
21 Therefore the Loʀᴅ heard and
1was
Afull of wrath;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob
And anger also mounted against Israel,
22 Because they
Adid not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.
23 Yet He commanded the clouds above
And
Aopened the doors of heaven;
24 He
Arained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them
1Bfood from heaven.
25 Man did eat the bread of
1angels;
He sent them
2food
3Ain abundance.
26 He
Acaused the east wind to blow in the heavens
And by His
1power He directed the south wind.
27 When He rained
1meat upon them like the dust,
Even
Awinged fowl like the sand of the seas,
28 Then He let
them fall in the midst of
1their camp,
Round about their dwellings.
29 So they
Aate and were well filled,
And their desire He gave to them.
30 1Before they had satisfied their desire,
AWhile their food was in their mouths,
31 The
Aanger of God rose against them
And killed
1some of their
Bstoutest ones,
And
2subdued the choice men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this they
Astill sinned
And
Bdid not believe in His wonderful works.
33 So He brought
Atheir days to an end in
1futility
And their years in sudden terror.
34 When He killed them, then they
Asought Him,
And returned and searched
Bdiligently for God;
35 And they remembered that God was their
Arock,
And the Most High God their
BRedeemer.
36 But they
Adeceived Him with their mouth
And
Blied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not
Asteadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
38 But He, being
Acompassionate,
1Bforgave
their iniquity and did not destroy
them; And often He
2Crestrained His anger
And did not arouse all His wrath.
39 Thus
AHe remembered that they were but
Bflesh,
A
1Cwind that passes and does not return.
40 How often they
Arebelled against Him in the wilderness
And
Bgrieved Him in the
Cdesert!
41 Again and again they
1Atempted God,
And pained the
BHoly One of Israel.
42 They
Adid not remember
BHis
1power,
The day when He
Credeemed them from the adversary,
43 When He performed His
Asigns in Egypt
And His
Bmarvels in the field of Zoan,
44 And
Aturned their rivers to blood,
And their streams, they could not drink.
45 He sent among them swarms of
Aflies which devoured them,
And
Bfrogs which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crops to the
Agrasshopper
And the product of their labor to the
Blocust.
47 He
1destroyed their vines with
Ahailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave over their
Acattle also to the hailstones
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
49 He
Asent upon them His burning anger,
Fury and indignation and trouble,
1A band of destroying angels.
50 He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their soul from death,
But
Agave over their life to the plague,
51 And
Asmote all the firstborn in Egypt,
The
Bfirst
issue of their virility in the tents of
CHam.
52 But He
Aled forth His own people like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness
Blike a flock;
53 He led them
Asafely, so that they did not fear;
But
Bthe sea engulfed their enemies.
54 So
AHe brought them to His holy
1land,
To this
2Bhill country
Cwhich His right hand had gained.
55 He also
Adrove out the nations before them
And
Bapportioned them for an inheritance by measurement,
And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they
1Atempted and
Brebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies,
57 But turned back and
Aacted treacherously like their fathers;
They
Bturned aside like a treacherous bow.
58 For they
Aprovoked Him with their
Bhigh places
And
Caroused His jealousy with their
Dgraven images.
59 When God heard, He
1was filled with
Awrath
And greatly
Babhorred Israel;
60 So that He
Aabandoned the
Bdwelling place at Shiloh,
The tent
1which He had pitched among men,
61 And gave up His
Astrength to captivity
And His glory
Binto the hand of the adversary.
62 He also
Adelivered His people to the sword,
And
1was filled with wrath at His inheritance.
63 AFire devoured
1His young men,
And
1His
Bvirgins had no wedding songs.
64 1His
Apriests fell by the sword,
And
1His
Bwidows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord
Aawoke as
if from sleep,
Like a
Bwarrior
1overcome by wine.
66 He
1Adrove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting reproach.
67 He also
Arejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount
AZion which He loved.
69 And He
Abuilt His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.
70 He also
Achose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71 From
1Athe care of the
2ewes
Bwith suckling lambs He brought him
To
Cshepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel
DHis inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the
Aintegrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.