Tell the Coming Generation
A Maskil1 of hAsaph.
1 iGive ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
2 jI will open my mouth kin a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our lfathers have told us.
4 We will not mhide them from their children,
but ntell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and othe wonders that he has done.
5 He established pa testimony in qJacob
and appointed a law in qIsrael,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that rthe next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget sthe works of God,
but tkeep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be ulike their fathers,
va stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation wwhose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with2 the bow,
xturned back on the day of battle.
10 They ydid not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They zforgot his works
and athe wonders that he had shown them.
12 In the sight of their fathers bhe performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in cthe fields of Zoan.
13 He ddivided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters estand like a heap.
14 fIn the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
15 He gsplit rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of hthe rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
irebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They jtested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
k“Can God lspread a table in the wilderness?
20 mHe struck the rock so that water gushed out
and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
na fire was kindled against Jacob;
his anger rose against Israel,
22 because they odid not believe in God
and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
and popened the doors of heaven,
24 and he qrained down on them manna to eat
and gave them rthe grain of heaven.
25 Man ate of the bread of sthe angels;
he sent them food tin abundance.
26 He ucaused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained meat on them like vdust,
winged birds like wthe sand of the seas;
28 he xlet them fall in the midst of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 And they yate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they zcraved.
30 But before they had satisfied their craving,
awhile the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed bthe strongest of them
and laid low cthe young men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they dstill sinned;
edespite his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he made ftheir days gvanish like3 a breath,4
and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they hsought him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their irock,
the Most High God their jredeemer.
36 But they kflattered him with their mouths;
they llied to him with their tongues.
37 Their mheart was not nsteadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being ocompassionate,
patoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He qremembered that they were but rflesh,
sa wind that passes and comes not again.
40 How often they trebelled against him in the wilderness
and ugrieved him in vthe desert!
41 They wtested God again and again
and provoked xthe Holy One of Israel.
42 They ydid not remember his power5
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 zwhen he performed his asigns in Egypt
and his bmarvels in cthe fields of Zoan.
44 He dturned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of eflies, which devoured them,
and ffrogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to gthe destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hhail
and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their icattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of jdestroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down every kfirstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of lHam.
52 Then he led out his people mlike sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 nHe led them in safety, so that they owere not afraid,
but pthe sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his qholy land,
rto the mountain which his right hand had swon.
55 He tdrove out nations before them;
he uapportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they vtested and wrebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like xa deceitful bow.
58 For they yprovoked him to anger with their zhigh places;
they amoved him to jealousy with their bidols.
59 When God heard, he was full of cwrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He dforsook his dwelling at eShiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his fpower to captivity,
his gglory to the hand of the foe.
62 He hgave his people over to the sword
and ivented his wrath on his heritage.
63 jFire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no kmarriage song.
64 Their lpriests fell by the sword,
and their mwidows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord nawoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he oput his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of pJoseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he qloves.
69 He rbuilt his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He schose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tfollowing the nursing ewes he brought him
to ushepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his vinheritance.
72 With wupright heart he shepherded them
and xguided them with his skillful hand.
Jacob Flees from Laban
1 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw athat Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, b“Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, c“I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father dhas been with me. 6 eYou know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ften times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, g‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has htaken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for iI have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, jwhere you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now karise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” 14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there lany portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For mhe has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. 16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in nPaddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s ohousehold gods. 20 And Jacob tricked1 Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. 21 He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the pEuphrates,2 and qset his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean rin a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, seither good or bad.”
25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have ttricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly tand trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not permit me uto kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is vin my power to do you harm. But the wGod of your3 father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, xeither good or bad.’ 30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you ysteal my gods?” 31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 zAnyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot arise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and byour kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. cFrom my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. dI served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and eyou have changed my wages ten times. 42 fIf the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the gFear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. hGod saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and irebuked you last night.”
43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? 44 Come now, jlet us make a covenant, you and I. kAnd let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob ltook a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,4 but Jacob called it Galeed.5 48 Laban said, m“This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 nand Mizpah,6 for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, oGod is witness between you and me.”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52 pThis heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the qFear of his father Isaac, 54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called rhis kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.
55 7 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed shis grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.
