1 Open your ears to my teachings, my people.
2 I will open my mouth to illustrate points.
3 things that we have heard and known about,
4 We will not hide them from our children.
5 He established written instructions for Jacob’s people.
6 so that the next generation would know them.
7 to trust God, to remember what he has done,
8 Then they will not be like their ancestors,
9 The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows ⌞and arrows⌟,
10 They had not been faithful to God’s promise.
11 They forgot what he had done—
12 In front of their ancestors he performed miracles
13 He divided the sea and led them through it.
14 He guided them by a cloud during the day
15 He split rocks in the desert.
16 He made streams come out of a rock.
17 They continued to sin against him,
18 They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God by saying,
20 True, he did strike a rock,
21 When the Lord heard this, he became furious.
22 because they did not believe God
23 In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above
24 He rained manna down on them to eat
25 Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones,
26 He made the east wind blow in the heavens
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
28 He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp,
29 They ate more than enough.
30 but they still wanted more.
31 the anger of God flared up against them.
32 In spite of all this, they continued to sin,
33 He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind.
34 When he killed ⌞some of⌟ them, ⌞the rest⌟ searched for him.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
36 They flattered him with their mouths
37 Their hearts were not loyal to him.
38 But he is compassionate.
39 He remembered that they were only flesh and blood,
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
41 Again and again they tested God,
42 They did not remember his power—
43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
44 He turned their rivers into blood
45 He sent a swarm of flies that bit them
46 He gave their crops to grasshoppers
47 He killed their vines with hail
48 He let the hail strike their cattle
49 He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them.
50 He cleared a path for his anger.
51 He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt,
52 But he led his own people out like sheep
53 He led them safely.
54 He brought them into his holy land,
55 He forced nations out of their way
56 They tested God Most High and rebelled against him.
57 They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors.
58 They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites.
59 When God heard, he became furious.
60 He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh,
61 He allowed his power to be taken captive
62 He let swords kill his people.
63 Fire consumed his best young men,
64 His priests were cut down with swords.
65 Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping,
66 He struck his enemies from behind
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph.
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
69 He built his holy place to be like the high heavens,
70 He chose his servant David.
71 He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs
72 With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd.