I will open my mouth in parables
(Matthew 13:34-35)
1
The understanding of Asaph. O my people, attend to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
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I will open my mouth in parables. I will speak about concepts that are from the beginning.(a)
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We have heard and known such great things, as our fathers have described to us.
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These things have not been hidden from their sons in any generation: declaring the praises of the Lord, and his virtues, and the wonders that he has done.
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And he has received testimony with Jacob, and he has set a law within Israel. Such great things, he has commanded our fathers, so as to make these things known to their sons,
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so that another generation might know them, and so that the sons, who will be born and who will grow up, shall describe them to their sons.
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So then, may they put their hope in God, and may they not forget the works of God, and may they seek his commandments.
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May they not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation: a generation that does not straighten their heart and whose spirit is not trustworthy with God.
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The sons of Ephraim, who bend and shoot the bow, have been turned back in the day of battle.
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They have not kept the covenant of God. And they were not willing to walk in his law.
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And they have been forgetful of his benefits, and of his miracle, which he revealed to them.
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He performed miracles in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis.
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He broke the sea and he led them through. And he stationed the waters, as if in a vessel.
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And he led them with a cloud by day, and with illumination by fire throughout the night.
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He broke through the rock in the wasteland, and he gave them to drink, as if from the great abyss.
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He brought forth water from the rock, and he conducted the waters, as if they were rivers.
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And yet, they continued to sin against him. In a waterless place, they provoked the Most High with resentment.(b)
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And they tempted God in their hearts, by asking for food according to their desires.
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And they spoke badly about God. They said, “Would God be able to prepare a table in the desert?
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He struck the rock, and so waters flowed and the torrents flooded, but would even he be able to provide bread, or provide a table, for his people?”
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Therefore, the Lord heard, and he was dismayed, and a fire was kindled within Jacob, and an anger ascended into Israel.
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For they neither put their trust in God, nor did they hope in his salvation.
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And he commanded the clouds from above, and he opened the doors of heaven.
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And he rained down manna upon them to eat, and he gave them the bread of heaven.
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Man ate the bread of Angels. He sent them provisions in abundance.
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He transferred the south wind from heaven, and, in his virtue, he brought in the Southwest wind.
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And he rained down flesh upon them, as if it were dust, and feathered birds, as if they were the sand of the sea.
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And they fell down in the midst of their camp, encircling their tabernacles.
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And they ate until they were greatly satisfied, and he brought to them according to their desires.
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They were not cheated out of what they wanted. Their food was still in their mouth,
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and then the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones among them, and he impeded the elect of Israel.
32
In all these things, they continued to sin, and they were not trustworthy with his miracles.
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And their days faded away into vanity, and their years with haste.
34
When he slew them, then they sought him. And they returned, and they drew near to him in the early morning.
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And they were mindful that God is their helper and that the Most High God is their redeemer.
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And they chose him with their mouth, and then they lied to him with their tongue.
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For their heart was not upright with him, nor have they been living faithfully in his covenant.
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Yet he is merciful, and he will pardon their sins. And he will not destroy them. And he has abundantly turned aside his own wrath. And he did not enflame his wrath entirely.
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And he remembered that they are flesh: with a spirit that goes forth and does not return.(c)
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How often did they provoke him in the desert and stir him to wrath in a waterless place?
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And they turned back and tempted God, and they exasperated the Holy One of Israel.
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They did not remember his hand, in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of the one troubling them.
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Thus, he positioned his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Tanis.
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And he turned their rivers into blood, along with their rain showers, so that they could not drink.
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He sent among them the common fly, and it devoured them, and the frog, and it scattered them.
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And he gave up their fruits to mold and their labors to the locust.
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And he slew their vineyards with hail and their mulberry trees with severe frost.
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And he delivered their cattle to the hail and their possessions to fire.
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And he sent the wrath of his indignation among them: indignation and wrath and tribulation, sent forth by evil angels.
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He made way for the path of his anger. He did not spare their souls from death. And he enclosed their beasts of burden in death.
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And he struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt: the first-fruits of all their labor in the tabernacles of Ham.
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And he took away his own people like sheep, and he led them through the wilderness like a flock.
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And he led them out in hope, and they did not fear. And the sea covered their enemies.
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And he led them to the mountain of his sanctification: the mountain that his right hand had acquired. And he cast out the Gentiles before their face. And he divided their land by lot to them, with a line of distribution.
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And he caused the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
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Yet they tempted and aggravated God Most High, and they did not keep his testaments.
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And they turned themselves aside, and they did not serve the covenant. In the same manner as their fathers, they were turned backwards, like a crooked bow.
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They impelled him to anger on their hills, and they provoked him to rivalry with their graven images.
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God listened, and he spurned them, and he reduced Israel greatly, almost to nothing.
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And he rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tabernacle where he had dwelt among men.
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And he delivered their virtue into captivity, and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.
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And he enclosed his people with the sword, and he spurned his inheritance.
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Fire consumed their young men, and their virgins were not lamented.
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Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not weep.
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And the Lord was awakened, as if out of sleep, and like a powerful man impaired by wine.
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And he struck his enemies on the back. He gave them over to everlasting disgrace.
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And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
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But he chose the tribe of Judah: mount Zion, which he loved.
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And he built up his sanctuary, like a single-horned beast, in the land that he founded for all ages.(d) (e)
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And he chose his servant David, and he took him from the flocks of the sheep: he received him from following the ewes with their young,
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in order to pasture Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance.
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And he fed them with the innocence of his heart. And he led them with the understanding of his hands.
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