1 AN INSTRUCTION OF ASAPH. Give ear, O my people, to my law, || Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth. 2 I open my mouth with an allegory, || I bring out hidden things of old, 3 That we have heard and know, || And our fathers have recounted to us. 4 We do not hide from their sons, || Recounting praises of YHWH to a later generation, || And His strength, and His wonders that He has done. 5 And He raises up a testimony in Jacob, || And has placed a law in Israel, || That He commanded our fathers, || To make them known to their sons. 6 So that a later generation knows, || Sons who are born, rise and recount to their sons, 7 And place their confidence in God, || And do not forget the doings of God, || But keep His commands. 8 And they are not like their fathers, || A generation apostatizing and being rebellious, || A generation—it has not prepared its heart, || Nor is its spirit steadfast with God. 9 Sons of Ephraim—armed bearers of bow, || Have turned in a day of conflict. 10 They have not kept the covenant of God, || And they have refused to walk in His law, 11 And they forget His doings, || And His wonders that He showed them. 12 He has done wonders before their fathers, || In the land of Egypt—the field of Zoan. 13 He cleft a sea, and causes them to pass over, || Indeed, He causes waters to stand as a heap. 14 And leads them with a cloud by day, || And with a light of fire all the night. 15 He cleaves rocks in a wilderness, || And gives drink—as the great deep. 16 And brings out streams from a rock, || And causes waters to come down as rivers. 17 And they still continue to sin against Him, || To provoke the Most High in the dry place. 18 And they try God in their heart, || To ask food for their lust. 19 And they speak against God—they said: “Is God able to array a table in a wilderness?” 20 Behold, He has struck a rock, || And waters flow, indeed, streams overflow. “Also, is He able to give bread? Does He prepare flesh for His people?” 21 Therefore YHWH has heard, || And He shows Himself angry, || And fire has been kindled against Jacob, || And anger has also gone up against Israel, 22 For they have not believed in God, || Nor have they trusted in His salvation. 23 And He commands clouds from above, || Indeed, He has opened doors of the heavens. 24 And He rains manna on them to eat, || Indeed, He has given grain of the heavens to them. 25 Each has eaten food of the mighty, || He sent provision to them to satiety. 26 He causes an east wind to journey in the heavens, || And leads a south wind by His strength, 27 And He rains on them flesh as dust, || And as sand of the seas—winged bird, 28 And causes it to fall in the midst of His camp, || Around His dwelling places. 29 And they eat, and are greatly satisfied, || And He brings their desire to them. 30 They have not been estranged from their desire, || Their food is yet in their mouth, 31 And the anger of God has gone up against them, || And He slays among their fat ones, || And He caused youths of Israel to bend. 32 With all this they have sinned again, || And have not believed in His wonders. 33 And He consumes their days in vanity, || And their years in trouble. 34 If He slew them, then they sought Him, || And turned back, and earnestly sought God, 35 And they remember that God is their rock, || And God Most High their redeemer. 36 And they deceive Him with their mouth, || And lie to Him with their tongue, 37 And their heart has not been right with Him, || And they have not been steadfast in His covenant. 38 And He, the Merciful One, pardons iniquity, and does not destroy, || And has often turned back His anger, || And does not awaken all His fury. 39 And He remembers that they are flesh, || A wind going on—and it does not return. 40 How often do they provoke Him in the wilderness, || Grieve Him in the desolate place? 41 Indeed, they turn back, and try God, || And have limited the Holy One of Israel. 42 They have not remembered His hand || The day He ransomed them from the adversary. 43 When He set His signs in Egypt, || And His wonders in the field of Zoan, 44 And He turns their streams to blood, || And they do not drink their floods. 45 He sends among them the beetle, and it consumes them, || And the frog, and it destroys them, 46 And gives their increase to the caterpillar, || And their labor to the locust. 47 He destroys their vine with hail, || And their sycamores with frost, 48 And delivers their beasts up to the hail, || And their livestock to the burning flames. 49 He sends on them the fury of His anger, || Wrath, and indignation, and distress—A discharge of evil messengers. 50 He ponders a path for His anger, || He did not keep back their soul from death, || Indeed, He delivered up their life to the pestilence. 51 And He strikes every firstborn in Egypt, || The first-fruit of the strong in tents of Ham. 52 And causes His people to journey as a flock, || And guides them as a drove in a wilderness, 53 And He leads them confidently, || And they have not been afraid, || And the sea has covered their enemies. 54 And He brings them to the border of His sanctuary, || This mountain His right hand had acquired, 55 And casts out nations from before them, || And causes them to fall in the line of inheritance, || And causes the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents, 56 And they tempt and provoke God Most High, || And have not kept His testimonies. 57 And they turn back, || And deal treacherously like their fathers, || They have been turned like a deceitful bow, 58 And make Him angry with their high places, || And make Him zealous with their carved images, 59 God has heard, and shows Himself angry. And kicks exceedingly against Israel. 60 And He leaves the Dwelling Place of Shiloh, || The tent He had placed among men, 61 And He gives His strength to captivity, || And His beauty into the hand of an adversary, 62 And delivers His people up to the sword, || And showed Himself angry with His inheritance. 63 Fire has consumed His young men, || And His virgins have not been praised. 64 His priests have fallen by the sword, || And their widows do not weep. 65 And the Lord wakes as a sleeper, || As a mighty one crying aloud from wine. 66 And He strikes His adversaries backward, || He has put a continuous reproach on them, 67 And He kicks against the tent of Joseph, || And has not fixed on the tribe of Ephraim. 68 And He chooses the tribe of Judah, || With Mount Zion that He loved, 69 And builds His sanctuary as a high place, || Like the earth, He founded it to a distant age. 70 And He fixes on His servant David, || And takes him from the folds of a flock, 71 He has brought him in from behind suckling ones, || To rule over Jacob His people, || And over Israel His inheritance. 72 And he rules them according to the integrity of his heart, || And leads them by the skillfulness of his hands!