1. O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
2. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--
3. what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
9. The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;
10. they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.
11. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
12. He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13. He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.
14. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
15. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16. he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
17. But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
18. They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
19. They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
22. for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
23. Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;
24. he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.
25. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
26. He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power.
27. He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
28. He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.
29. They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved.
30. But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths,
32. In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33. So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
34. Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.
35. They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36. But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
37. their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
39. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
40. How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!
41. Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42. They did not remember his power-- the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43. the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44. He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
45. He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
46. He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
47. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48. He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
51. He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52. But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.
53. He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
56. But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
57. Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58. They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59. When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely.
60. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
61. He sent [the ark of] his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62. He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.
63. Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;
64. their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.
65. Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
66. He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.
67. Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68. but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
70. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;
72. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.