Tell the Coming Generation

A Maskil1 of hAsaph.

¹iGive ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

²jI will open my mouth kin a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

³things that we have heard and known,

that our lfathers have told us.

⁴We will not mhide them from their children,

but ntell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and othe wonders that he has done.

⁵He established pa testimony in qJacob

and appointed a law in qIsrael,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

⁶that rthe next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

⁷so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget sthe works of God,

but tkeep his commandments;

⁸and that they should not be ulike their fathers,

va stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation wwhose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimites, armed with2 the bow,

xturned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They ydid not keep God's covenant,

but refused to walk according to his law.

¹¹They zforgot his works

and athe wonders that he had shown them.

¹²In the sight of their fathers bhe performed wonders

in the land of Egypt, in cthe fields of Zoan.

¹³He ddivided the sea and let them pass through it,

and made the waters estand like a heap.

¹⁴fIn the daytime he led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a fiery light.

¹⁵He gsplit rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

¹⁶He made streams come out of hthe rock

and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they sinned still more against him,

irebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They jtested God in their heart

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,

k“Can God lspread a table in the wilderness?

²⁰mHe struck the rock so that water gushed out

and streams overflowed.

Can he also give bread

or provide meat for his people?”

²¹Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;

na fire was kindled against Jacob;

his anger rose against Israel,

²²because they odid not believe in God

and did not trust his saving power.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above

and popened the doors of heaven,

²⁴and he qrained down on them manna to eat

and gave them rthe grain of heaven.

²⁵Man ate of the bread of sthe angels;

he sent them food tin abundance.

²⁶He ucaused the east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by his power he led out the south wind;

²⁷he rained meat on them like vdust,

winged birds like wthe sand of the seas;

²⁸he xlet them fall in the midst of their camp,

all around their dwellings.

²⁹And they yate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they zcraved.

³⁰But before they had satisfied their craving,

awhile the food was still in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them,

and he killed bthe strongest of them

and laid low cthe young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they dstill sinned;

edespite his wonders, they did not believe.

³³So he made ftheir days gvanish like3 a breath,4

and their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, they hsought him;

they repented and sought God earnestly.

³⁵They remembered that God was their irock,

the Most High God their jredeemer.

³⁶But they kflattered him with their mouths;

they llied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their mheart was not nsteadfast toward him;

they were not faithful to his covenant.