1   
Listen, my people, to my teaching,
  and pay attention to what I say.

2   
I am going to use wise sayings
  and explain mysteries from the past, ^note

3   
  things we have heard and known,
  things that our fathers told us.

4   
We will not keep them from our children;
  we will tell the next generation
  about the Lord's power and his great deeds
  and the wonderful things he has done.

5   
He gave laws to the people of Israel
  and commandments to the descendants of Jacob.
He instructed our ancestors
  to teach his laws to their children,

6   
so that the next generation might learn them
  and in turn should tell their children.

7   
In this way they also will put their trust in God
  and not forget what he has done,
  but always obey his commandments.

8   
They will not be like their ancestors,
  a rebellious and disobedient people,
whose trust in God was never firm
  and who did not remain faithful to him.

9   
The Ephraimites, armed with bows and arrows,
  ran away on the day of battle.

10   
They did not keep their covenant with God;
  they refused to obey his law.

11   
They forgot what he had done,
  the miracles they had seen him perform.

12   
While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles
  in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt. ^note

13   
He divided the sea and took them through it;
  he made the waters stand like walls. ^note

14   
By day he led them with a cloud
  and all night long with the light of a fire. ^note

15   
He split rocks open in the desert
  and gave them water from the depths.

16   
He caused a stream to come out of the rock
  and made water flow like a river. ^{note note}

17   
But they continued to sin against God,
  and in the desert they rebelled against the Most High.

18   
They deliberately put God to the test
  by demanding the food they wanted.

19   
They spoke against God and said,
  “Can God supply food in the desert?

20   
It is true that he struck the rock,
  and water flowed out in a torrent;
but can he also provide us with bread
  and give his people meat?”

21   
And so the Lord was angry when he heard them;
  he attacked his people with fire,
  and his anger against them grew,

22   
because they had no faith in him
  and did not believe that he would save them.

23   
But he spoke to the sky above
  and commanded its doors to open;

24   
he gave them grain from heaven,
  by sending down manna for them to eat. ^note

25   
So they ate the food of angels,
  and God gave them all they wanted.

26   
He also caused the east wind to blow,
  and by his power he stirred up the south wind;

27   
and to his people he sent down birds,
  as many as the grains of sand on the shore;

28   
they fell in the middle of the camp
  all around the tents.

29   
So the people ate and were satisfied;
  God gave them what they wanted.

30   
But they had not yet satisfied their craving
  and were still eating,

31   
when God became angry with them
  and killed their strongest men,
  the best young men of Israel. ^note

32   
In spite of all this the people kept sinning;
  in spite of his miracles they did not trust him.

33   
So he ended their days like a breath
  and their lives with sudden disaster.

34   
Whenever he killed some of them,
  the rest would turn to him;
  they would repent and pray earnestly to him.

35   
They remembered that God was their protector,
  that the Almighty came to their aid.

36   
But their words were all lies;
  nothing they said was sincere.

37   
They were not loyal to him;
  they were not faithful to their covenant with him. ^note

38   
But God was merciful to his people.
  He forgave their sin
  and did not destroy them.
Many times he held back his anger
  and restrained his fury.

39   
He remembered that they were only mortal beings,
  like a wind that blows by and is gone.

40   
How often they rebelled against him in the desert;
  how many times they made him sad!

41   
Again and again they put God to the test
  and brought pain to the Holy God of Israel.

42   
They forgot his great power
  and the day when he saved them from their enemies

43   
  and performed his mighty acts and miracles

  in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

44   
He turned the rivers into blood,
  and the Egyptians had no water to drink. ^note

45   
He sent flies among them, that tormented them,
  and frogs that ruined their land. ^note

46   
He sent locusts to eat their crops
  and to destroy their fields. ^note

47   
He killed their grapevines with hail
  and their fig trees with frost.

48   
He killed their cattle with hail
  and their flocks with lightning. ^{note note}

49   
He caused them great distress
  by pouring out his anger and fierce rage,
  which came as messengers of death.

50   
He did not restrain his anger
  or spare their lives,
  but killed them with a plague.

51   
He killed the first-born sons
  of all the families of Egypt. ^note

52   
Then he led his people out like a shepherd
  and guided them through the desert. ^note

53   
He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
  but the sea came rolling over their enemies. ^note

54   
He brought them to his holy land,
  to the mountains which he himself conquered. ^note

55   
He drove out the inhabitants as his people advanced;
  he divided their land among the tribes of Israel
  and gave their homes to his people. ^note

56   
But they rebelled against Almighty God
  and put him to the test.
They did not obey his commandments, ^note

57   
  but were rebellious and disloyal like their fathers,
  unreliable as a crooked arrow.

58   
They angered him with their heathen places of worship,
  and with their idols they made him furious.

59   
God was angry when he saw it,
  so he rejected his people completely.

60   
He abandoned his tent in Shiloh, ^note
  the home where he had lived among us. ^note

61   
He allowed our enemies to capture the Covenant Box,
  the symbol of his power and glory. ^note

62   
He was angry with his own people
  and let them be killed by their enemies.

63   
Young men were killed in war,
  and young women had no one to marry.

64   
Priests died by violence,
  and their widows were not allowed to mourn.

65   
At last the Lord woke up as though from sleep;
  he was like a strong man excited by wine.

66   
He drove his enemies back
  in lasting and shameful defeat.

67   
But he rejected the descendants of Joseph;
  he did not select the tribe of Ephraim.

68   
Instead he chose the tribe of Judah
  and Mount Zion, which he dearly loves.

69   
There he built his Temple
  like his home in heaven;
he made it firm like the earth itself,
  secure for all time.

70   
He chose his servant David;
  he took him from the pastures,

71   
where he looked after his flocks,
  and he made him king of Israel,
  the shepherd of the people of God. ^note

72   
David took care of them with unselfish devotion
  and led them with skill.

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