⁵ He established written instructions for Jacob’s people.
    He gave his teachings to Israel.
    He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children
⁶ so that the next generation would know them.
    Children yet to be born would learn them.
        They will grow up and tell their children
⁷             to trust Elohim, to remember what he has done,
                and to obey his commands.
⁸         Then they will not be like their ancestors,
            a stubborn and rebellious generation.
                Their hearts were not loyal.
                Their spirits were not faithful to El.

⁹ The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows and arrows,
    turned and ran on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They had not been faithful to Elohim’s promise.^[a]
    They refused to follow his teachings.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done—
    the miracles that he had shown them.

¹² In front of their ancestors he performed miracles
    in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea and led them through it.
    He made the waters stand up like a wall.
¹⁴ He guided them by a cloud during the day
    and by a fiery light throughout the night.
¹⁵ He split rocks in the desert.
    He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water.
¹⁶ He made streams come out of a rock.
    He made the water flow like rivers.

¹⁷ They continued to sin against him,
    to rebel in the desert against Elyon.
¹⁸ They deliberately tested Elohim by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against Elohim by saying,
    “Can El prepare a banquet in the desert?
²⁰ True, he did strike a rock,
    and water did gush out,
        and the streams did overflow.
    But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?”

²¹ When Yahweh heard this, he became furious.
    His fire burned against Jacob
        and his anger flared up at Israel
²² because they did not believe Elohim
    or trust him to save them.

²³ In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above
    and opened the doors of heaven.
²⁴ He rained manna down on them to eat
    and gave them grain from heaven.
²⁵ Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones,
    and Elohim sent them plenty of food.

²⁶ He made the east wind blow in the heavens
    and guided the south wind with his might.
²⁷ He rained meat down on them like dust,
    birds like the sand on the seashore.
²⁸ He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp,
    all around his dwelling place.

²⁹ They ate more than enough.
    He gave them what they wanted,
³⁰ but they still wanted more.
    While the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of Elohim flared up against them.
    He killed their strongest men
    and slaughtered the best young men in Israel.

³² In spite of all this, they continued to sin,
    and they no longer believed in his miracles.
³³ He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind.
    He brought their years to an end in terror.
³⁴ When he killed some of them, the rest searched for him.
    They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for El.
³⁵ They remembered that Elohim was their rock,
    that El Elyon was their Go’el.
³⁶ They flattered him with their mouths
    and lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their hearts were not loyal to him.
    They were not faithful to his promise.

³⁸ But he is compassionate.
    He forgave their sin.
        He did not destroy them.
    He restrained his anger many times.
        He did not display all of his fury.
³⁹ He remembered that they were only flesh and blood,
    a breeze that blows and does not return.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
    How often they caused him grief in the desert!
⁴¹ Again and again they tested Elohim,
    and they pushed Qedosh Yisrael to the limit.
⁴² They did not remember his power—
    the day he freed them from their oppressor,
⁴³ when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
    his wonders in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴ He turned their rivers into blood
    so that they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent a swarm of flies that bit them
    and frogs that ruined them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to grasshoppers
    and their produce to locusts.
⁴⁷ He killed their vines with hail
    and their fig trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He let the hail strike their cattle
    and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
⁴⁹ He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them.
    He sent an army of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He cleared a path for his anger.
    He did not spare them.
    He let the plague take their lives.
⁵¹ He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt,
    the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.

⁵² But he led his own people out like sheep
    and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
⁵³ He led them safely.
    They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
⁵⁴ He brought them into his holy land,
    to this mountain that his power had won.
⁵⁵ He forced nations out of their way
    and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
        He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.

⁵⁶ They tested Elohim Elyon and rebelled against him.
    They did not obey his written instructions.
⁵⁷ They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors.
    They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
⁵⁸ They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites.
    They made him furious because they worshiped idols.

⁵⁹ When Elohim heard, he became furious.
    He completely rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh,
    the tent where he had lived among humans.
⁶¹ He allowed his power to be taken captive
    and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
⁶² He let swords kill his people.
    He was furious with those who belonged to him.
⁶³ Fire consumed his best young men,
    so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
⁶⁴ His priests were cut down with swords.
    The widows of his priests could not even weep for them.
⁶⁵ Then Adonay woke up like one who had been sleeping,
    like a warrior sobering up from too much wine.
⁶⁶ He struck his enemies from behind
    and disgraced them forever.

⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph.
    He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion which he loved.
⁶⁹ He built his holy place to be like the high heavens,
    like the earth which he made to last for a long time.

⁷⁰ He chose his servant David.
    He took him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹ He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs
    so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob,
        of Israel, the people who belonged to Yahweh.
⁷² With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd.
    With skill he guided them.