1Hear my doctrine, O my people: incline your ears unto the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of old.
3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4We will not hide them from their children, but to the generation to come we will show the praise of the Lord, his power also, and his wonderful works that he hath done:
5How he established a testimony in Jacob, and ordained a Law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach their children:
6That the posterity might know it, and the children, which should be born, should stand up, and declare it to their children.
7That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8And not to be as their fathers, a disobedient and rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful unto God.
9The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle.
10They kept not the Covenant of God, but refused to walk in his Law,
11And forgate his acts, and his wonderful works that he had showed them.
12He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt; even in the field of Zoan.
13He divided the Sea, and led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heap.
14In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as of the great depths.
16He brought floods also out of the stony rock, so that he made the waters to descend like the rivers.
17Yet they sinned still against him, and provoked the Highest in the wilderness,
18And tempted God in their hearts in requiring meat for their lust.
19They spake against God also, saying, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20Behold, he smote the rock, that the water gushed out, and the streams overflowed: can he give bread also? or prepare flesh for his people?
21Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry, and the fire was kindled in Jacob, and also wrath came upon Israel,
22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his help.
23Yet he had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of heaven,
24And had rained down Manna upon them for to eat, and had given them of the wheat of heaven.
25Man did eat the bread of Angels: he sent them meat enough.
26He caused the East wind to pass in the heaven: and through his power he brought in the South wind.
27He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
28And he made it fall in the midst of their camp, even round about their habitations.
29So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their desire.
30They were not turned from their lusts, but the meat was yet in their mouths,
31When the wrath of God came even upon them, and slew the strongest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32For all this they sinned still, and believed not his wondrous works.
33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years hastily.
34And when he slew them, they sought him, and they returned, and sought God early.
35And they remembered that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer.
36But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue.
37For their heart was not upright with him: neither were they faithful in his covenant.
38Yet he being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not, but oft times called back his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39For he remembered that they were flesh: yea, a wind that passeth and cometh not again.
40How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness? and grieve him in the desert?
41Yea, they returned and tempted God, and limited the Holy one of Israel.
42They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy,
43Nor him that set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan,
44And turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, that they could not drink.
45He sent a swarm of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46He gave also their fruits unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the grasshopper.
47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig trees with the hailstone.
48He gave their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to the thunderbolts.
49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, indignation and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of evil angels.
50He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life to the pestilence,
51And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
52But he made his people to go out like sheep, and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53Yea, he carried them out safely, and they feared not, and the Sea covered their enemies.
54And he brought them unto the borders of his Sanctuary: even to this Mountain which his right hand purchased.
55He cast out the heathen also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
56Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies,
57But turned back, and dealt falsely like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.
58And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to wrath with their graven images.
59God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel,
60So that he forsook the habitation of Shiloh, even the Tabernacle where he dwelt among men,
61And delivered his power into captivity, and his beauty into the enemy’s hand.
62And he gave up his people to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
63The fire devoured their chosen men, and their maids were not praised.
64Their Priests fell by the sword, and their widows lamented not.
65But the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and as a strong man that after his wine crieth out,
66And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetual shame.
67Yet he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68But chose the tribe of Judah, and mount Zion which he loved.
69And he built his Sanctuary as an high palace, like the earth, which he established forever.
70He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71Even from behind the ewes with young, brought he him to feed his people in Jacob, and his inheritance in Israel.
72So he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.