Maschil Of Asaph.
Give ear,
O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the
words of my mouth.
02 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will
utter dark sayings of old:
03 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers
have told us.
04 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.
05 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:
06 That the generation to come might know them,
even the children which should be born; who
should arise and declare them to their children:
07 That they might set their hope in God, and not
forget the works of God, but keep his
commandments:
08 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.
09 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and
carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused
to walk in his law;
11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he
had shewed them.
12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their
fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of
Zoan.
13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass
through; and he made the waters to stand as an
heap.
14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave
them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and
caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him by
provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking
meat for their lust.
19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can
God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 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 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth:
so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger
also came up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted
not in his salvation:
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above,
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat,
and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to
the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven:
and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27 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 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he
gave them their own desire;
30 They were not estranged from their lust. But
while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the
fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of
Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed
not for his wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,
and their years in trouble.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and
they returned and enquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock,
and the high God their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their
mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
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37 For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38 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 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a
wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the
wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and
limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when
he delivered them from the enemy.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his
wonders in the field of Zoan.
44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and
their floods, that they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them,
which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed
them.
46 He gave also their increase unto the
caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their
sycomore trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and
their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending
evil angels among them.
50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not
their soul from death, but gave their life over
to the pestilence;
51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the
chief of their strength in the tabernacles of
Ham:
52 But made his own people to go forth like
sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a
flock.
53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared
not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to the border of his
sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right
hand had purchased.
55 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 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high
God, and kept not his testimonies:
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like
their fathers: they were turned aside like a
deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high
places, and moved him to jealousy with their
graven images.
59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly
abhorred Israel:
60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent which he placed among men;
61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and
his glory into the enemy's hand.
62 He gave his people over also unto the sword;
and was wroth with his inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men; and their
maidens were not given to marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their
widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and
like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of
wine.
66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts:
he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph,
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion
which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces,
like the earth which he hath established for
ever.
70 He chose David also his servant, and took him
from the sheepfolds:
71 From following the ewes great with young he
brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel
his inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of
his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of
his hands.
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