New Living Translation NLT
King James Version KJV
1 O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying,
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Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
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I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3 stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.
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Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.
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We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
5 For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children,
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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:
6 so the next generation might know them— even the children not yet born— and they in turn will teach their own children.
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That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.
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That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8 Then they will not be like their ancestors— stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
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And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9 The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.
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The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his instructions.
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They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11 They forgot what he had done— the great wonders he had shown them,
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And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12 the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
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Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!
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He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
14 In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire.
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In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.
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He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!
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He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
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And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18 They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.
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And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19 They even spoke against God himself, saying, “God can’t give us food in the wilderness.
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Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”
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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?
21 When the LORD heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,
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Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22 for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.
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Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
23 But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven.
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Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven.
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And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold.
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Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
26 He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power.
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He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27 He rained down meat as thick as dust— birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!
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He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28 He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents.
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And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29 The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved.
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So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
30 But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths,
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They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.
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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.
32 But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.
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For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
33 So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.
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Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34 When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously.
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When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.
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And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
36 But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues.
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Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.
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For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!
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But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.
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For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40 Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.
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How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.
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They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43 They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan.
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How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
44 For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams.
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And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
45 He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them.
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He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts.
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He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.
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He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
48 He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
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He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49 He loosed on them his fierce anger— all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.
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He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives but ravaged them with the plague.
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He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.
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And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52 But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.
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But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.
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And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them.
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And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55 He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.
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He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws.
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Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
57 They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
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But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.
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For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel.
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When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60 Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.
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So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61 He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.
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And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
62 He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people—his special possession.
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He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
63 Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.
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The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64 Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.
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Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.
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Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66 He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame.
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And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67 But he rejected Joseph’s descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
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Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.
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But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69 There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.
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And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
70 He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.
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He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71 He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants— God’s own people, Israel.
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From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.
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So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.