I will open my mouth in parables
(Matthew 13:34-35)
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AN INSTRUCTION OF ASAPH. Give ear, O my people, to my law, || Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth.
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I open my mouth with an allegory, || I bring forth hidden things of old,
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That we have heard and know, || And our fathers have recounted to us.
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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.
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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.
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So that a later generation knows, || Sons who are born, rise and recount to their sons,
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And place their confidence in God, || And do not forget the doings of God, || But keep His commands.
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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.
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Sons of Ephraim—armed bearers of bow, || Have turned in a day of conflict.
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They have not kept the covenant of God, || And they have refused to walk in His law,
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And they forget His doings, || And His wonders that He showed them.
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He has done wonders before their fathers, || In the land of Egypt—the field of Zoan.
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He cleft a sea, and causes them to pass over, || Indeed, He causes waters to stand as a heap.
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And leads them with a cloud by day, || And with a light of fire all the night.
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He cleaves rocks in a wilderness, || And gives drink—as the great deep.
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And brings out streams from a rock, || And causes waters to come down as rivers.
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And they still add to sin against Him, || To provoke the Most High in the dry place.
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And they try God in their heart, || To ask food for their lust.
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And they speak against God—they said: “Is God able to array a table in a wilderness?”
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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?”
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Therefore YHWH has heard, || And He shows Himself angry, || And fire has been kindled against Jacob, || And anger has also gone up against Israel,
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For they have not believed in God, || Nor have they trusted in His salvation.
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And He commands clouds from above, || Indeed, He has opened doors of the heavens.
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And He rains manna on them to eat, || Indeed, He has given grain of the heavens to them.
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Each has eaten food of the mighty, || He sent provision to them to satiety.
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He causes an east wind to journey in the heavens, || And leads a south wind by His strength,
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And He rains on them flesh as dust, || And as sand of the seas—winged bird,
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And causes [it] to fall in the midst of His camp, || Around His dwelling places.
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And they eat, and are greatly satisfied, || And He brings their desire to them.
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They have not been estranged from their desire, || Their food [is] yet in their mouth,
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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.
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With all this they have sinned again, || And have not believed in His wonders.
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And He consumes their days in vanity, || And their years in trouble.
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If He slew them, then they sought Him, || And turned back, and earnestly sought God,
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And they remember that God [is] their rock, || And God Most High their redeemer.
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And they deceive Him with their mouth, || And lie to Him with their tongue,
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And their heart has not been right with Him, || And they have not been steadfast in His covenant.
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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.
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And He remembers that they [are] flesh, || A wind going on—and it does not return.
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How often do they provoke Him in the wilderness, || Grieve Him in the desolate place?
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Indeed, they turn back, and try God, || And have limited the Holy One of Israel.
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They have not remembered His hand || The day He ransomed them from the adversary.
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When He set His signs in Egypt, || And His wonders in the field of Zoan,
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And He turns their streams to blood, || And they do not drink their floods.
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He sends among them the beetle, and it consumes them, || And the frog, and it destroys them,
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And gives their increase to the caterpillar, || And their labor to the locust.
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He destroys their vine with hail, || And their sycamores with frost,
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And delivers their beasts up to the hail, || And their livestock to the burning flames.
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He sends on them the fury of His anger, || Wrath, and indignation, and distress—A discharge of evil messengers.
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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.
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And He strikes every firstborn in Egypt, || The first-fruit of the strong in tents of Ham.
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And causes His people to journey as a flock, || And guides them as a drove in a wilderness,
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And He leads them confidently, || And they have not been afraid, || And the sea has covered their enemies.
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And He brings them to the border of His sanctuary, || This mountain His right hand had acquired,
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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,
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And they tempt and provoke God Most High, || And have not kept His testimonies.
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And they turn back, || And deal treacherously like their fathers, || They have been turned like a deceitful bow,
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And make Him angry with their high places, || And make Him zealous with their carved images,
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God has heard, and shows Himself angry. And kicks exceedingly against Israel.
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And He leaves the Dwelling Place of Shiloh, || The tent He had placed among men,
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And He gives His strength to captivity, || And His beauty into the hand of an adversary,
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And delivers His people up to the sword, || And showed Himself angry with His inheritance.
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Fire has consumed His young men, || And His virgins have not been praised.
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His priests have fallen by the sword, || And their widows do not weep.
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And the Lord wakes as a sleeper, || As a mighty one crying aloud from wine.
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And He strikes His adversaries backward, || He has put a continuous reproach on them,
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And He kicks against the tent of Joseph, || And has not fixed on the tribe of Ephraim.
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And He chooses the tribe of Judah, || With Mount Zion that He loved,
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And builds His sanctuary as a high place, || Like the earth, He founded it for all time.
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And He fixes on His servant David, || And takes him from the folds of a flock,
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He has brought him in from behind suckling ones, || To rule over Jacob His people, || And over Israel His inheritance.
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And he rules them according to the integrity of his heart, || And leads them by the skillfulness of his hands!
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