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I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,
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which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
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We 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 hath done.
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For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded to our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
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that the generation to come might know them, even the children who should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children,
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that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;
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and so 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.
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The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
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They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;
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they forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.
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Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
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He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
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In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
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He cleaved the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
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He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
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And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
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And they tempted God in their heart by asking for meat for their lust.
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Yea, they spoke against God: they said, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
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Behold, 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?"
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Therefore the LORD heard this and was wroth; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose up against Israel,
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because they believed not in God and trusted not in His salvation,
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though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
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and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
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Man ate angels' food; He sent them meat to the full.
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He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind.
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He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea.
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And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
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So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire.
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But they were not estranged from their lust; but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
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the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
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For all this, they sinned still and believed not in His wondrous works.
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Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.