Tell the Coming Generation

A Maskil1 of Asaph.

¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

²I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

³things that we have heard and known,

that our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

⁶that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

⁷so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments;

⁸and that they should not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimites, armed with2 the bow,

turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's covenant,

but refused to walk according to his law.

¹¹They forgot his works

and the wonders that he had shown them.

¹²In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders

in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

¹³He divided the sea and let them pass through it,

and made the waters stand like a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime he led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a fiery light.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

¹⁶He made streams come out of the rock

and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they sinned still more against him,

rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tested God in their heart

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

²⁰He struck the rock so that water gushed out

and streams overflowed.

Can he also give bread

or provide meat for his people?”

²¹Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;

a fire was kindled against Jacob;

his anger rose against Israel,

²²because they did not believe in God

and did not trust his saving power.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴and he rained down on them manna to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵Man ate of the bread of the angels;

he sent them food in abundance.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by his power he led out the south wind;

²⁷he rained meat on them like dust,

winged birds like the sand of the seas;

²⁸he let them fall in the midst of their camp,

all around their dwellings.

²⁹And they ate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰But before they had satisfied their craving,

while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them,

and he killed the strongest of them

and laid low the young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they still sinned;

despite his wonders, they did not believe.

³³So he made their days vanish like3 a breath,4

and their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, they sought him;

they repented and sought God earnestly.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouths;

they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their heart was not steadfast toward him;

they were not faithful to his covenant.