| Scripture |
Additional Comments |
| 1 An instruction. Of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. |
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| 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old, |
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| 3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us: |
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| 4 We will not hide them from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done. |
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| 5 For 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; |
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| 6 That the generation to come might know them, the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell them to their children, |
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| 7 And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of *God, but observe his commandments; |
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| 8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with *God. |
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| 9 The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle. |
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| 10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; |
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| 11 And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them. |
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| 12 In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan. |
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| 13 He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap; |
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| 14 And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire. |
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| 15 He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the depths, abundantly; |
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| 16 And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. |
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| 17 Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert; |
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| 18 And they tempted *God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust; |
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| 19 And they spoke against God: they said, Is *God able to prepare a table in the wilderness? |
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| 20 Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people? |
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| 21 Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel: |
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| 22 Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation; |
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| 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens, |
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| 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens. |
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| 25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full. |
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| 26 He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind; |
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| 27 And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas, |
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| 28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations: |
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| 29 And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them. |
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| 30 They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths, |
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| 31 When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. |
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| 32 For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works; |
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| 33 And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. |
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| 34 When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after *God; |
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| 35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and *God, the Most High, their redeemer. |
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| 36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue; |
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| 37 For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. |
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| 38 But he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed them not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury: |
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| 39 And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again. |
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| 40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! |
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| 41 And they turned again and tempted *God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel. |
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| 42 They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor, |
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| 43 How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan; |
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| 44 And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink; |
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| 45 He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them; |
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| 46 And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust; |
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| 47 He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones; |
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| 48 And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts. |
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| 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, --a mission of angels of woes. |
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| 50 He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; |
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| 51 And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham. |
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| 52 And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock; |
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| 53 And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies. |
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| 54 And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased; |
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| 55 And he drove out the nations before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. |
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| 56 But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,
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| 57 And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow. |
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| 58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. |
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| 59 God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: |
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| 60 And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men, |
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| 61 And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor; |
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| 62 And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance: |
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| 63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in nuptial song; |
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| 64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. |
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| 65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine; |
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| 66 And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach. |
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| 67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, |
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| 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved; |
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| 69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever. |
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| 70 And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: |
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| 71 From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. |
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| 72 And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands. |
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