New Living Translation

1 O my people, listen to my instructions.<br>Open your ears to what I am saying,<br> 2 for I will speak to you in a parable.<br>I will teach you hidden lessons from our past —<br> 3 stories we have heard and known,<br>stories our ancestors handed down to us.<br> 4 We will not hide these truths from our children;<br>we will tell the next generation<br>about the glorious deeds of the LORD,<br>about his power and his mighty wonders.<br> 5 For he issued his laws to Jacob;<br>he gave his instructions to Israel.<br>He commanded our ancestors<br>to teach them to their children,<br> 6 so the next generation might know them —<br>even the children not yet born —<br>and they in turn will teach their own children.<br> 7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God (Elohim),<br>not forgetting his glorious miracles<br>and obeying his commands.<br> 8 Then they will not be like their ancestors —<br>stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,<br>refusing to give their hearts to God (Elohim).<br> 9 The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows,<br>turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.<br> 10 They did not keep God (Elohim)’s covenant<br>and refused to live by his instructions.<br> 11 They forgot what he had done —<br>the great wonders he had shown them,<br> 12 the miracles he did for their ancestors<br>on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.<br> 13 For he divided the sea and led them through,<br>making the water stand up like walls!<br> 14 In the daytime he led them by a cloud,<br>and all night by a pillar of fire.<br> 15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness<br>to give them water, as from a gushing spring.<br> 16 He made streams pour from the rock,<br>making the waters flow down like a river!<br> 17 Yet they kept on sinning against him,<br>rebelling against the Most High in the desert.<br> 18 They stubbornly tested God (Elohim) in their hearts,<br>demanding the foods they craved.<br> 19 They even spoke against God (Elohim) himself, saying,<br>“God (Elohim) can’t give us food in the wilderness.<br> 20 Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out,<br>but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”<br> 21 When the LORD heard them, he was furious.<br>The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob.<br>Yes, his anger rose against Israel,<br> 22 for they did not believe God (Elohim)<br>or trust him to care for them.<br> 23 But he commanded the skies to open;<br>he opened the doors of heaven.<br> 24 He rained down manna for them to eat;<br>he gave them bread from heaven.<br> 25 They ate the food of angels!<br>God (Elohim) gave them all they could hold.<br> 26 He released the east wind in the heavens<br>and guided the south wind by his mighty power.<br> 27 He rained down meat as thick as dust —<br>birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!<br> 28 He caused the birds to fall within their camp<br>and all around their tents.<br> 29 The people ate their fill.<br>He gave them what they craved.<br> 30 But before they satisfied their craving,<br>while the meat was yet in their mouths,<br> 31 the anger of God (Elohim) rose against them,<br>and he killed their strongest men.<br>He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.<br> 32 But in spite of this, the people kept sinning.<br>Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.<br> 33 So he ended their lives in failure,<br>their years in terror.<br> 34 When God (Elohim) began killing them,<br>they finally sought him.<br>They repented and took God (Elohim) seriously.<br> 35 Then they remembered that God (Elohim) was their rock,<br>that God (Elohim) Most High was their redeemer.<br> 36 But all they gave him was lip service;<br>they lied to him with their tongues.<br> 37 Their hearts were not loyal to him.<br>They did not keep his covenant.<br> 38 Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins<br>and did not destroy them all.<br>Many times he held back his anger<br>and did not unleash his fury!<br> 39 For he remembered that they were merely mortal,<br>gone like a breath of wind that never returns.<br> 40 Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness<br>and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.<br> 41 Again and again they tested God (Elohim)’s patience<br>and provoked the Holy One of Israel.<br> 42 They did not remember his power<br>and how he rescued them from their enemies.<br> 43 They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt,<br>his wonders on the plain of Zoan.<br> 44 For he turned their rivers into blood,<br>so no one could drink from the streams.<br> 45 He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them<br>and hordes of frogs to ruin them.<br> 46 He gave their crops to caterpillars;<br>their harvest was consumed by locusts.<br> 47 He destroyed their grapevines with hail<br>and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.<br> 48 He abandoned their cattle to the hail,<br>their livestock to bolts of lightning.<br> 49 He loosed on them his fierce anger —<br>all his fury, rage, and hostility.<br>He dispatched against them<br>a band of destroying angels.<br> 50 He turned his anger against them;<br>he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives<br>but ravaged them with the plague.<br> 51 He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family,<br>the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.<br> 52 But he led his own people like a flock of sheep,<br>guiding them safely through the wilderness.<br> 53 He kept them safe so they were not afraid;<br>but the sea covered their enemies.<br> 54 He brought them to the border of his holy land,<br>to this land of hills he had won for them.<br> 55 He drove out the nations before them;<br>he gave them their inheritance by lot.<br>He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.<br> 56 But they kept testing and rebelling against God (Elohim) Most High.<br>They did not obey his laws.<br> 57 They turned back and were as faithless as their parents.<br>They were as undependable as a crooked bow.<br> 58 They angered God (Elohim) by building shrines to other gods;<br>they made him jealous with their idols.<br> 59 When God (Elohim) heard them, he was very angry,<br>and he completely rejected Israel.<br> 60 Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,<br>the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.<br> 61 He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured;<br>he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.<br> 62 He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword,<br>because he was so angry with his own people — his special possession.<br> 63 Their young men were killed by fire;<br>their young women died before singing their wedding songs.<br> 64 Their priests were slaughtered,<br>and their widows could not mourn their deaths.<br> 65 Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep,<br>like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.<br> 66 He routed his enemies<br>and sent them to eternal shame.<br> 67 But he rejected Joseph’s descendants;<br>he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.<br> 68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah,<br>and Mount Zion, which he loved.<br> 69 There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens,<br>as solid and enduring as the earth.<br> 70 He chose his servant David,<br>calling him from the sheep pens.<br> 71 He took David from tending the ewes and lambs<br>and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants —<br>God (Elohim)’s own people, Israel.<br> 72 He cared for them with a true heart<br>and led them with skillful hands.<br>