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¹O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying,

²for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past —

³stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.

⁴We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.

⁵For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children,

⁶so the next generation might know them — even the children not yet born — and they in turn will teach their own children.

⁷So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.

⁸Then they will not be like their ancestors — stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

⁹The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his instructions.

¹¹They forgot what he had done — the great wonders he had shown them,

¹²the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

¹³For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!

¹⁴In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire.

¹⁵He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.

¹⁶He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!

¹⁷Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.

¹⁹They even spoke against God himself, saying, “God can’t give us food in the wilderness.

²⁰Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”

²¹When the LORD heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,

²²for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.

²³But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven.

²⁵They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold.

²⁶He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power.

²⁷He rained down meat as thick as dust — birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!

²⁸He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents.

²⁹The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved.

³⁰But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.

³²But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.

³³So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.

³⁴When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously.

³⁵Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.

³⁶But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.

³⁸Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!

³⁹For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

⁴⁰Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.

⁴¹Again and again they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.

⁴³They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan.

⁴⁴For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams.

⁴⁵He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts.

⁴⁷He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He loosed on them his fierce anger — all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives but ravaged them with the plague.

⁵¹He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.

⁵²But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.

⁵³He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them.

⁵⁵He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.

⁵⁶But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws.

⁵⁷They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.

⁵⁸They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel.

⁶⁰Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.

⁶¹He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.

⁶²He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people — his special possession.

⁶³Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.

⁶⁴Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.

⁶⁵Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.

⁶⁶He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame.

⁶⁷But he rejected Joseph’s descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.

⁷⁰He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.

⁷¹He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants — God’s own people, Israel.

⁷²He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.

¹O God, pagan nations have conquered your land, your special possession. They have defiled your holy Temple and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.

²They have left the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of heaven. The flesh of your godly ones has become food for the wild animals.

³Blood has flowed like water all around Jerusalem; no one is left to bury the dead.

⁴We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us.

⁵O LORD, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?

⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you — on kingdoms that do not call upon your name.

⁷For they have devoured your people Israel, making the land a desolate wilderness.

⁸Do not hold us guilty for the sins of our ancestors! Let your compassion quickly meet our needs, for we are on the brink of despair.

⁹Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name.

¹⁰Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking, “Where is their God?” Show us your vengeance against the nations, for they have spilled the blood of your servants.

¹¹Listen to the moaning of the prisoners. Demonstrate your great power by saving those condemned to die.

¹²O Lord, pay back our neighbors seven times for the scorn they have hurled at you.

¹³Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation.

¹Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock. O God, enthroned above the cherubim, display your radiant glory

²to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Show us your mighty power. Come to rescue us!

³Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

⁴O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers?

⁵You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful.

⁶You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations. Our enemies treat us as a joke.

⁷Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

⁸You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine; you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.

⁹You cleared the ground for us, and we took root and filled the land.

¹⁰Our shade covered the mountains; our branches covered the mighty cedars.

¹¹We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea; our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.

¹²But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?

¹³The wild boar from the forest devours it, and the wild animals feed on it.

¹⁴Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Look down from heaven and see our plight. Take care of this grapevine

¹⁵that you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.

¹⁶For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies. May they perish at the sight of your frown.

¹⁷Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice.

¹⁸Then we will never abandon you again. Revive us so we can call on your name once more.

¹⁹Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.