Maschil of Asaph

1Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your^p ears to the words of my mouth.   listen

2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:   MATT 13:35

3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done.

5For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

6That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments:

8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

9The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;   agreement

11And forgot His works, and His wonders that He had showed them.

12Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.

14In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

15He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.

18And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.   food

19Yea, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?   prepare

20Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can He give bread also? can He provide flesh for His people?   struck; meat

21Therefore the Lord heard this, and was angry: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation:

23Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven.

24And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

25Man did eat angels’ food: He sent them meat to the full.

26He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by His power He brought in the south wind.

27He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

28And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29So they did eat, and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire;

30They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,   separated

31The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.   struck

32For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works.

33Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.   futility; uselessness

34When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and inquired early after God.

35And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.   El^s.f. Elyon

36Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongues.

37For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant.   ACTS 8:21

38But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.

39For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again.   mortal

40How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!

41Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

42They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy.

43How He had wrought His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan:   performed, worked

44And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.   streams, rivers

45He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.   various

46He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.   harvest

47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

48He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

50He made a way to His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;   plague, disaster

51And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:   dwelling places

52But made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53And He led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased.

55He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.   foreign nations; company

56Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies:   tested; Elohim^p.f. Elyon

57But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.   shrines; carved idols

59When God heard this, He was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men;   tent of worship

61And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand.

62He gave His people over also to the sword; and was angry with His inheritance.

63The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

64Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.   Adonai^p.f.

66And He smote His enemies in the hinder parts: He put them to a perpetual reproach.   struck; rear

67Moreover He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

68But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.

69And He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He has established for ever.

70He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71From following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

72So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.