Psalms 78:2-22

²as I open my mouth in a poem on the riddling story of the past.

³What we have heard and known, and what our ancestors have told us,

⁴we will not hide from their children. We will tell to the next generation the praises and might of the Lord, and the wonders that he has done.

⁵He set up a testimony in Jacob, a law he appointed in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to make known to their children,

⁶that the next generation should know it, that the children yet to be born should arise and tell their children;

⁷that in God they might put their confidence, and not forget God's works; but that they might keep his commandments,

⁸and not be like their ancestors, a generation defiant and stubborn, a generation with heart unsteady, and spirit unfaithful towards God.

⁹Ephraimites, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's covenant, they refused to walk in his law.

¹¹They forgot what he had done, and the wonders he had shown them.

¹²He did wonders before their ancestors in the country of Zoan in Egypt.

¹³Through the sea which he split he brought them, making waters stand up like a heap;

¹⁴he led them by day with a cloud, all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵From the rocks which he split in the wilderness, he gave them to drink as of ocean's abundance.

¹⁶He brought streams out of the rock, and made water run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they still went on sinning against him, they defied the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They wilfully challenged God, demanding the food that they longed for.

¹⁹“Is God able,” such was their challenge, “to spread in the desert a table?

²⁰From the rock that he struck there gushed water, and torrents that overflowed; but can he also give bread, or provide his people with meat?”

²¹When the Lord heard this, he was furious, and fire was kindled on Jacob, anger flared up against Israel.

²²For they put no trust in God, no confidence in his help.