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Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
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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, shewing 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 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 which 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 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.
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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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And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
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Marvellous 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 an 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 clave 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 meat for their lust.
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Yea, they spake 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 came 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 did eat 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 like 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 did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
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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 for his wondrous works.
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Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
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When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
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And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
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Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
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For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
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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.
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For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
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How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
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Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
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They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
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How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
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And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
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He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
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He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
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He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
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He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
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He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
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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;
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And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
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But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
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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.
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Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
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But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
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For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
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When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
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So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
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And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
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He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
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The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
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Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
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Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
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And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
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Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
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But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
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And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
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He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
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From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
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So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
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Psalms 78 (KJV) ⇒