God and His People

1Listen, my people, to my teaching,

and pay attention to what I say.

2 I am going to use wise sayings

and explain mysteries from the past,

3things we have heard and known,

things that our ancestors told us.

4We will not keep them from our children;

we will tell the next generation

about the Lord's power and his great deeds

and the wonderful things he has done.

5He gave laws to the people of Israel

and commandments to the descendants of Jacob.

He instructed our ancestors

to teach his laws to their children,

6so that the next generation might learn them

and in turn should tell their children.

7In this way they also will put their trust in God

and not forget what he has done,

but always obey his commandments.

8They will not be like their ancestors,

a rebellious and disobedient people,

whose trust in God was never firm

and who did not remain faithful to him.

9The Ephraimites, armed with bows and arrows,

ran away on the day of battle.

10They did not keep their covenant with God;

they refused to obey his law.

11They forgot what he had done,

the miracles they had seen him perform.

12 While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles

in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

13 He divided the sea and took them through it;

he made the waters stand like walls.

14 By day he led them with a cloud

and all night long with the light of a fire.

15 He split rocks open in the desert

and gave them water from the depths.

16He caused a stream to come out of the rock

and made water flow like a river.

17But they continued to sin against God,

and in the desert they rebelled against the Most High.

18 They deliberately put God to the test

by demanding the food they wanted.

19They spoke against God and said,

“Can God supply food in the desert?

20It is true that he struck the rock,

and water flowed out in a torrent;

but can he also provide us with bread

and give his people meat?”

21And so the Lord was angry when he heard them;

he attacked his people with fire,

and his anger against them grew,

22because they had no faith in him

and did not believe that he would save them.

23But he spoke to the sky above

and commanded its doors to open;

24 he gave them grain from heaven,

by sending down manna for them to eat.

25So they ate the food of angels,

and God gave them all they wanted.

26He also caused the east wind to blow,

and by his power he stirred up the south wind;

27and to his people he sent down birds,

as many as the grains of sand on the shore;

28they fell in the middle of the camp

all around the tents.

29So the people ate and were satisfied;

God gave them what they wanted.

30But they had not yet satisfied their craving

and were still eating,

31when God became angry with them

and killed their strongest men,

the best young men of Israel.

32In spite of all this the people kept sinning;

in spite of his miracles they did not trust him.

33So he ended their days like a breath

and their lives with sudden disaster.

34Whenever he killed some of them,

the rest would turn to him;

they would repent and pray earnestly to him.

35They remembered that God was their protector,

that the Almighty came to their aid.

36But their words were all lies;

nothing they said was sincere.

37 They were not loyal to him;

they were not faithful to their covenant with him.

38But God was merciful to his people.

He forgave their sin

and did not destroy them.

Many times he held back his anger

and restrained his fury.

39He remembered that they were only mortal beings,

like a wind that blows by and is gone.

40How often they rebelled against him in the desert;

how many times they made him sad!

41Again and again they put God to the test

and brought pain to the Holy God of Israel.

42They forgot his great power

and the day when he saved them from their enemies

43and performed his mighty acts and miracles

in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

44 He turned the rivers into blood,

and the Egyptians had no water to drink.

45 He sent flies among them, that tormented them,

and frogs that ruined their land.

46 He sent locusts to eat their crops

and to destroy their fields.

47 He killed their grapevines with hail

and their fig trees with frost.

48He killed their cattle with hail

and their flocks with lightning.

49He caused them great distress

by pouring out his anger and fierce rage,

which came as messengers of death.

50He did not restrain his anger

or spare their lives,

but killed them with a plague.

51 He killed the first-born sons

of all the families of Egypt.

52 Then he led his people out like a shepherd

and guided them through the desert.

53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid;

but the sea came rolling over their enemies.

54 He brought them to his holy land,

to the mountains which he himself conquered.

55 He drove out the inhabitants as his people advanced;

he divided their land among the tribes of Israel

and gave their homes to his people.

56 But they rebelled against Almighty God

and put him to the test.

They did not obey his commandments,

57but were rebellious and disloyal like their ancestors,

unreliable as a crooked arrow.

58They angered him with their heathen places of worship,

and with their idols they made him furious.

59God was angry when he saw it,

so he rejected his people completely.

60 He abandoned his tent in Shiloh,

the home where he had lived among us.

61 He allowed our enemies to capture the Covenant Box,

the symbol of his power and glory.

62He was angry with his own people

and let them be killed by their enemies.

63Young men were killed in war,

and young women had no one to marry.

64Priests died by violence,

and their widows were not allowed to mourn.

65At last the Lord woke up as though from sleep;

he was like a strong man excited by wine.

66He drove his enemies back

in lasting and shameful defeat.

67But he rejected the descendants of Joseph;

he did not select the tribe of Ephraim.

68Instead he chose the tribe of Judah

and Mount Zion, which he dearly loves.

69There he built his Temple

like his home in heaven;

he made it firm like the earth itself,

secure for all time.

70 He chose his servant David;

he took him from the pastures,

71where he looked after his flocks,

and he made him king of Israel,

the shepherd of the people of God.

72David took care of them with unselfish devotion

and led them with skill.