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v1
Listen, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
v2
I will offer ^[Hebrew “open”] a parable with my mouth. I will pour out riddles from long ago,
v3
that we have heard and known, and our ancestors ^[Or “fathers”] have told us.
v4
We will not hide them from their children, ^[Or “descendants”] telling the next generation the praises of Yahweh, and his power and his wonders that he has done.
v5
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law ^[Hebrew torah] in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors ^[Or “fathers”] to teach to their children,
v6
so that the next generation might know— children yet to be born— that they might rise up and tell their children,
v7
that they might set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments,
v8
and not be like their ancestors, ^[Or “fathers”] a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
v9
The sons of Ephraim, armed with archers, ^[Literally “armed with shooters of the bow”] turned back on the day of battle.
v10
They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to go in his law. ^[Hebrew torah]
v11
They also forgot his deeds, and his wonders that he had shown them.
v12
In front of their ancestors ^[Or “fathers”] he did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
v13
He split the sea and caused them to go over, and he caused waters to stand like a heap.
v14
And he led them with the cloud by day, and all night with a fiery light.
v15
He caused rocks to split in the wilderness and provided drink abundantly as from the depths.
v16
And he brought streams out of the rock and caused water to flow down like rivers.
v17
But they sinned still further against him by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
v18
And they tested God in their heart by asking food for their craving. ^[Literally “for their soul”]
v19
And they spoke against God. They said, “Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
v20
Yes, he struck the rock and water flowed and streams gushed out, but can he also give food or provide meat for his people?“
v21
Therefore Yahweh heard and he was very angry, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger also rose up against Israel,
v22
because they did not believe God, and they did not trust his salvation.
v23
Nevertheless, he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,
v24
and rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.
v25
Humankind ate the bread of angels. ^[Literally “mighty ones”] He sent them food enough to be satisfied.
v26
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and drove along the south wind by his strength.
v27
Then he rained meat on them like dust, even winged birds ^[Hebrew “bird”] like the sand of the seas.
v28
He caused them to fall in the midst of his camp, all around his dwellings.
v29
So they ate and were well filled, and he brought about what they craved.
v30
They had not yet turned aside from their craving, while their food was still in their mouth,
v31
the anger of God rose against them, and he killed some of the stoutest of them, even the young men of Israel he caused to bow down in death.
v32
In spite of all this they sinned further and did not believe his wonders.
v33
And he consumed their days with futility ^[Or “he ended their days like a breath”] their years with terror. ^[Or “and their years suddenly”]
v34
When he killed some of them, then they sought him, and repented and earnestly sought God.
v35
And they remembered that God was their rock, and God Most High their redeemer.
v36
But they enticed him with their mouth and lied to him with their tongue.
v37
For their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful to his covenant.
v38
But he was compassionate; he pardoned ^[Or “covered,” or “atoned for”] their guilt and did not destroy them. And many times he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath,
v39
for he remembered that they were flesh, a passing wind that does not return.
v40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and vexed him in the wasteland!
v41
So they again tested God and distressed ^[Or perhaps, “pressed to the limit”] the Holy One of Israel.
v42
And they did not remember his power ^[Literally “hand”] when ^[Literally “the day that”] he redeemed them from the enemy,
v43
how he performed ^[Hebrew “set”] his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
v44
when he turned their rivers ^[Normally the word for the Nile, with the plural here suggesting perhaps it and its canals] to blood so they could not drink from their streams.
v45
He sent among them flies that devoured them and frogs that destroyed them.
v46
And he gave their crop to the locusts and their labor to the locust. ^[Two different words translated “locusts”]
v47
He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with sleet. ^[The word for “sleet” is only used here, and the translation is a guess based on context]
v48
He also handed their cattle over to the hail and their livestock to the lightning bolts.
v49
He sent against them his fierce anger, rage and indignation and trouble, a band of destroying ^[Literally “evil”] angels.
v50
He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them ^[Hebrew “their soul”] from death but handed their life over to the plague.
v51
And he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their virility in the tents of Ham.
v52
Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them like a herd in the wilderness.
v53
And he led them safely and they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies.
v54
So he brought them to his holy territory, ^[Hebrew “border”] this mountain his right hand acquired. ^[Or “had created”]
v55
And he drove out nations before them and allocated them for an inheritance by boundary line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
v56
But they tested and rebelled against God Most High and did not keep his statutes.
v57
And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors. ^[Or “fathers”] They twisted like a crooked ^[Or “deceitful”] bow.
v58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and made him jealous with their images.
v59
God heard and he was very angry and rejected Israel utterly.
v60
So he abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, the tent he had placed among humankind.
v61
And he gave his strength into captivity and his splendor into the hand of the enemy.
v62
He also handed his people over to the sword, and he was very angry with his inheritance.
v63
Fire devoured his young men, and his young women ^[Or “virgins”] were not praised.
v64
His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.
v65
Then the Lord awoke like one who had been asleep, awoke like a warrior who had been drunk with wine. ^[Or “like a warrior shouting because of wine”]
v66
And he beat back his enemies; he gave them over to perpetual scorn.
v67
And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not chose the tribe of Ephraim,
v68
but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion ^[Literally “the mountain of Zion”] that he loved.
v69
And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
v70
And he chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds.
v71
He brought him from following nursing ewes to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
v72
And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.