¹ Juudan synti on raudalla ja kovalla timantilla kirjoitettu, ja heidän sydämensä tauluihin kaivettu, ja teidän alttarinne sarviin,

² Että heidän lapsensa mieleensä johdattaisivat alttarit ja metsistöt viheriäisten puiden tykönä korkeilla vuorilla.

³ Mutta minä olen antava sinun korkeutes ryöviöksi, sekä vuorilla että kedoilla, sekä riistas, että kaiken sinun tavaras, niiden syntein tähden, jotka kaikissa sinun maas äärissä on tehty.

⁴ Ja sinun pitää tuleman ajetuksi pois sinun perinnöstäs, jonka minä sinulle antanut olen; ja minä tahdon sinun tehdä vihollisten orjaksi siinä maassa, jota et sinä tunne; sillä te olette sytyttäneet vihani tulen, joka ijankaikkisesti palava on.

⁵ Näin sanoo Herra: kirottu olkoon se mies, joka luottaa ihmiseen, ja panee lihan itsellensä käsivarreksi, ja jonka sydän luopuu pois Herrasta.

⁶ Hänen pitää tuleman niinkuin kanerva korvessa, ja ei pidä saaman nähdä tulevaista lohdutusta; ja hänen pitää asuman kuivuudessa korvessa, hedelmättömässä ja autiossa erämaassa.

⁷ Mutta se mies on siunattu, joka luottaa Herraan; ja Herra on hänen turvansa.

⁸ Hän on niinkuin se puu, joka veden reunalle on istutettu ja ojan viereen juurtunut; sillä jos vielä palavuus tulee, niin ei hän kuitenkaan pelkää, vaan sen lehdet pysyvät viheriäisinä, eikä murehdi, kuin kuiva vuosi tulee, mutta kantaa hedelmän ilman lakkaamatta.

⁹ Sydän on häijy ja pahanilkinen kappale ylitse kaikkein; kuka taitaa sitä tutkia?

¹⁰ Minä Herra tahdon tutkia sydämen ja koetella munaskuut ja annan kullekin hänen töittensä jälkeen ja hänen töittensä hedelmän jälkeen.

¹¹ Sillä niinkuin lintu hautoo ja ei kuori, niin on myös se, joka väärin kalua kokoo; sillä hänen pitää jättämän sen kesken aikaansa, ja viimeiseltä tyhjäksi tuleman.

¹² Mutta meidän pyhyytemme sia, (Jumalan) kunnian istuin, on aina lujana pysynyt.

¹³ Sinä Herra olet Israelin toivo; kaikki, jotka sinun hylkäävät, pitää häpiään tuleman; ne minusta luopuneet pitää maahan kirjoitettaman; sillä he hylkäävät Herran, joka on elävä vesilähde.

¹⁴ Paranna minua, Herra, niin minä paranen; auta sinä minua, niin minä olen autettu; sillä sinä olet minun kerskaukseni.

¹⁵ Katso, he sanovat minulle: kussa siis on Herran sana? annas nyt tulla!

¹⁶ Mutta en minä ole paennut sinusta, minun paimeneni, niin en minä ole myös toivottanut heille surkiaa päivää, sen sinä tiedät; mitä minä saarnannut olen, se on oikea sinun edessäs.

¹⁷ Älä ole minulle hämmästykseksi; sinä olet minun turvani hädässä.

¹⁸ Anna heidän häpiään tulla, jotka minua vainoovat, ja älä anna minun häpiään tulla; anna heidän peljästyä, ja älä anna minun peljästyä; anna onnetoin päivä heille tulla, ja lyö rikki heitä kaksinkertaisesti.

¹⁹ Näin sanoi Herra minulle: mene ja seiso kansan portissa, josta Juudan kuninkaat käyvät ulos ja sisälle, ja kaikissa Jerusalemin porteissa.

²⁰ Ja sano heille: kuulkaat Herran sanaa, te Juudan kuninkaat, ja kaikki Juudan ja Jerusalemin asuvaiset, jotka tästä portista sisälle käytte.

²¹ Näin sanoo Herra: kavahtakaat teitänne ja älkäät sabbatina mitään kuormaa kantako, älkäät myös viekö Jerusalemin porttein lävitse;

²² Ja älkäät viekö yhtään taakkaa sabbatina ulos teidän huoneistanne, ja älkäät tehkö mitään työtä; vaan pyhittäkäät sabbatin päivä, niinkuin minä teidän isillenne käskenyt olen.

²³ Mutta ei he kuule eikä kallista korviansa, vaan tulevat kankiaksi, ettei heidän pitäisi kuuleman, eikä salliman heitänsä neuvottaa.

²⁴ Ja pitää tapahtuman, että, jos te uskollisesti kuulette minua, sanoo Herra, niin ettette yhtään kuormaa kanna sabbatin päivänä tämän kaupungin portin lävitse; vaan pyhitätte sabbatin päivän, niin ettette myös työtä tee sinä päivänä;

²⁵ Niin pitää myös tämän kaupungin portista käymän kuninkaat ja päämiehet ulos ja sisälle, jotka Davidin istuimella istuvat, ratsastavat ja vaeltavat sekä vaunuilla ja hevosilla he, ja heidän pääruhtinaansa, Juudan miehet ja Jerusalemin asuvaiset; ja tässä kaupungissa pitää ijankaikkisesti asuttaman.

²⁶ Ja pitää tuleman Juudan kaupungeista ja niistä, jotka ympäri Jerusalemin ovat, ja Benjaminin maasta, laaksoista ja vuorilta, ja lounaasta päin, ne jotka pitää viemän edes polttouhrit, uhrit, ruokauhrit ja suitsutuksen, niin myös ne, jotka pitää viemän kiitosuhrit Herran huoneesen.

²⁷ Mutta jollette minua kuule, niin että te pyhitätte sabbatin päivän, ja ettette yhtään taakkaa kanna Jerusalemin porteista sabbatin päivänä: niin minä sytytän tulen sen portteihin, joka Jerusalemin huoneet kuluttaman pitää, jota ei pidä sammutettaman.

¹ Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

⁶ that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

⁷ that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸ and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰ They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

¹¹ They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹² He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³ He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹ Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

²² because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.

²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴ He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷ He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸ He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

²⁹ So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰ They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹ when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

³² For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

³³ Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹ They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³ how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴ he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹ and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵ He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷ but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶² He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰ He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹ from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷² So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.