CLV(i)
1 {Contemplating, Asaphic{ Do give ear, my people, to my law; Stretch out your ear to the sayings of my mouth."
2 I will open my mouth with a proverb; I will utter enigmas from aforetime,
3 Which we have heard, and we know them, And our fathers, they have recounted to us."
4 We shall not suppress them from their sons, Recounting to the next generation the praises of Yahweh, And His strength and His marvelous works that He has done."
5 For He set up a testimony in Jacob, And He placed a law in Israel, Which He enjoined on our fathers To make them known to their sons,
6 That the next generation may know, The sons who shall be born; They shall rise and recount them to their sons."
7 Thus they shall place their confidence in Elohim, And they shall not forget all the activity of El, And His instructions shall they preserve."
8 Then they shall not become like their fathers, A generation stubborn and rebellious, A generation that had neither established its heart, Nor was its spirit faithful to El."
9 The sons of Ephraim, though weaponed archers, They turned back in the day of attack."
10 They did not keep the covenant of Elohim, And in His law they refused to walk."
11 They forgot all His activity And His marvelous works that He had shown them.
12 In front of their fathers He had performed a marvel, In the country of Egypt, the field of Zoan:"
13 He rent the sea and caused them to pass over, And He made the waters stand up like a waterspout."
14 He guided them with a cloud by day, And all the night with a light of fire."
15 He rent rocks in the wilderness And let them drink as from the abyss, abundantly."
16 He brought forth floods from a crag, And He made the water descend like streams."
17 Yet they continued still to sin against Him, To rebel against the Supreme in an arid place."
18 They probed El in their heart By requesting food for their soul.
19 So they spoke against Elohim; they said, Is El able to arrange a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He smote the rock, and waters gushed out, And the watercourses overflowed, But is He able to give bread? Or can He prepare meat for His people?
21 Wherefore Yahweh heard, and He was enraged, And a fire was ignited against Jacob, And indeed anger ascended against Israel."
22 For they did not believe in Elohim, And they did not trust in His salvation."
23 Yet He enjoined the skies above, And He opened the double doors of the heavens."
24 He rained on them manna to eat, And He gave them grain of the heavens."
25 Each one ate bread of sturdy ones; He sent provision to them, to satisfaction."
26 He made an east wind to journey in the heavens, And He drove forth a south wind by His strength."
27 So He rained meat on them like soil dust, And the winged flyer like sand of the seas."
28 And He cast them down within His camp, Round about His Grand Tabernacle."
29 They ate and were surfeited exceedingly, And He brought all their yearning to them."
30 Yet they were not alienated from their yearning; Their food was still in their mouth,
31 When the anger of Elohim ascended against them; He killed the stoutest of them, And the choice ones of Israel He cut off."
32 In spite of all this they still sinned And believed not in His marvelous works.
33 So He ended their days in failure, And their years in panic."
34 Whenever He killed them, then they sought after Him, And they returned and sought early for El."
35 Then they remembered that Elohim is their Rock, And El, the Supreme, is their Redeemer."
36 Yet they would entice Him with their mouth And lie to Him with their tongue.
37 Their heart, it was not established before Him, And they were not faithful to His covenant."
38 Yet He was compassionate; He made a propitiatory shelter for depravity, And He did not bring ruin; He acted many times to reverse His anger, And He would not rouse all His fury."
39 He ever remembered that they were flesh, A wind going that is not returning."
40 How often they defied Him in the wilderness; They grieved Him in the desolation.
41 They were again and again probing El, And the Holy One of Israel they set as a mark."
42 They did not remember His hand:The day when He ransomed them from the foe,
43 When He placed His signs in Egypt, And His miracles in the field of Zoan."
44 He turned their waterways to blood, So they could drink from their flowings no more."
45 He sent a mixture of flies among them, and it devoured them, And the frog plague, and it ruined them."
46 He gave their crop over to the beetle, And the fruit of their labor to the locust."
47 He killed their vine with hail, And their mulberry trees with sleet."
48 He closed their livestock over to hail, And their cattle to siroccos."
49 He sent upon them the heat of His anger, Rage and menace and distress, A mission of the messengers of perils,
50 Who aligned a track for His anger; He did not keep back their soul from death, And He closed their life over to the plague."
51 Then He smote every firstborn in Egypt, The beginning of virility in the tents of Ham."
52 But He made His people to journey like a flock, And He led them like a drove in the wilderness."
53 He guided them, in trust, and they were not afraid, Yet the sea covered their enemies."
54 Thus He brought them to His holy territory, This hill country that His right hand had acquired."
55 He drove out the nations before them, And He allocated to them their allotment by the line. He enabled Israel's tribes to tabernacle in their tents."
56 Yet they probed and defied Elohim, the Supreme, And they did not keep His testimonies."
57 They were turned away and treacherous like their fathers; They were warped like a deceptive bow.
58 They provoked Him to vexation with their high-places, And they made Him jealous with their carvings."
59 Elohim heard, and He was enraged, And He utterly rejected Israel."
60 Then He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent He had made to tabernacle among humanity."
61 He sent His strength into captivity, And His beauty into the hand of the foe."
62 He closed His people over to the sword, And He was enraged with His allotment."
63 Fire devoured their choice young men, And their virgins had no nuptial song."
64 Their priests fell by the sword, Yet their widows could not lament."
65 Then Yahweh awoke as from sleep, Like a master jubilant from wine."
66 He smote His foes backward; He gave them an eonian reproach.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim."
68 Yet He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loves;"
69 And He built His Sanctuary like the heights of heaven, Like the earth that He founded for the eon."
70 He chose David, His servant, And He took him from the folds of the flock;"
71 From following the ewes, He brought him To shepherd Jacob, His people, And Israel, His allotment."
72 So he shepherded them in the integrity of his heart, And by the understanding of his palms, he guided them."