^{1 Ref} Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

^{2 Ref} I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

^{3 Ref} Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

^{4 Ref} We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

^{5 Ref} 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 children:

^{6 Ref} That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

^{7 Ref} That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

^{8 Ref} And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

^{9 Ref} The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

^{10 Ref} They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

^{11 Ref} And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

^{12 Ref} Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

^{13 Ref} He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

^{14 Ref} In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

^{15 Ref} He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

^{16 Ref} He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

^{17 Ref} And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

^{18 Ref} And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

^{19 Ref} Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

^{20 Ref} Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

^{21 Ref} Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

^{22 Ref} Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

^{23 Ref} Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

^{24 Ref} And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

^{25 Ref} Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

^{26 Ref} He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

^{27 Ref} He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

^{29 Ref} So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

^{30 Ref} They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

^{31 Ref} The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

^{32 Ref} For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

^{33 Ref} Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

^{34 Ref} When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

^{35 Ref} And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

^{36 Ref} Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

^{37 Ref} For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

^{38 Ref} But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

^{39 Ref} For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

^{40 Ref} How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

^{41 Ref} Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

^{42 Ref} They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

^{43 Ref} How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

^{44 Ref} And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

^{45 Ref} He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

^{46 Ref} He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

^{47 Ref} He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

^{48 Ref} He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

^{49 Ref} He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

^{50 Ref} He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

^{51 Ref} And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

^{52 Ref} But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

^{53 Ref} And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

^{54 Ref} And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

^{55 Ref} He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

^{56 Ref} Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

^{57 Ref} But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

^{58 Ref} For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

^{59 Ref} When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

^{60 Ref} So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

^{61 Ref} And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

^{62 Ref} He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

^{63 Ref} The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

^{64 Ref} Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

^{65 Ref} Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

^{66 Ref} And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

^{67 Ref} Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

^{68 Ref} But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

^{69 Ref} And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

^{70 Ref} He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

^{71 Ref} From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

^{72 Ref} So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.