1
Maschil of Asaph.
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;
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That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,
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We will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wondrous works that He hath done.
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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;
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That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born;
who should arise and tell them to their children,
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That they might put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;
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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.
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The children of Ephraim were as archers handling the bow, that turned back in the day of battle.
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They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;
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And they forgot His doings, and His wondrous works that He had shown them.
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Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
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He cleaved the sea, and caused them to pass through;
and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
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By day also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
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He cleaved rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the great deep.
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He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
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Yet went they on still to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
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And they tried God in their heart by asking food for their craving.
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Yea, they spoke against God;
they said: "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
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Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed;
can He give bread also?
or will He provide flesh for His people?"
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Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth;
and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;
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Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.
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And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
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And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven.
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Man did eat the bread of the mighty;
He sent them provisions to the full.
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He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven;
and by His power He brought on the south wind.
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He caused flesh also to rain upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas;
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And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings.
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So they did eat, and were well filled;
and He gave them that which they craved.
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They were not estranged from their craving, their food was yet in their mouths,
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When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the lustieth among them, and smote down the young men of Israel.
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For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His wondrous works.
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Therefore He ended their days as a breath, and their years in terror.
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When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly.
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And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
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But they beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongue.
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For their heart was not stedfast with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.
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But He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity, and destroyeth not;
yea, many a time doth He turn His anger away, and doth not stir up all His wrath.
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So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
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How oft did they rebel against Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!
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And still again they tried God, and set bounds to the Holy One of Israel.
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They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He redeemed them from the adversary.
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How He set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan;
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And turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink their streams.
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He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
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He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.
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He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.
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He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to fiery bolts.
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He sent forth upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a sending of messengers of evil.
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He levelled a path for His anger;
He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
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And smote all the first-born in Egypt, the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;
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But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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And He led them safely, and they feared not;
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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And He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain, which His right hand had gotten.
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He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
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Yet they tried and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not His testimonies;
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But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers;
they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
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For they provoked Him with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
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God heard, and was wroth, and He greatly abhorred Israel;
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And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had made to dwell among men;
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And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the adversary"s hand.
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He gave His people over also unto the sword;
and was wroth with His inheritance.
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Fire devoured their young men;
and their virgins had no marriage-song.
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Their priests fell by the sword;
and their widows made no lamentation.
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Then the Lord awaked as one asleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine.
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And He smote His adversaries backward;
He put upon them a perpetual reproach.
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Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;
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But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.
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And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He hath founded for ever.
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He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
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From following the ewes that give suck He brought him, to be shepherd over Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
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So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart;
and lead them by the skilfulness of his hands.