¹ Wenn in deiner Mitte ein Prophet aufsteht, oder einer, der Träume hat, und er gibt dir ein Zeichen oder ein Wunder;

² und das Zeichen oder das Wunder trifft ein, von welchem er zu dir geredet hat, indem er sprach: Laß uns anderen Göttern nachgehen (die du nicht gekannt hast) und ihnen dienen! -

³ so sollst du nicht hören auf die Worte dieses Propheten oder auf den, der die Träume hat; denn Jehova, euer Gott, versucht euch, um zu erkennen, ob ihr Jehova, euren Gott, liebet mit eurem ganzen Herzen und mit eurer ganzen Seele.

⁴ Jehova, eurem Gott, sollt ihr nachfolgen und ihn fürchten; und ihr sollt seine Gebote beobachten und seiner Stimme gehorchen und ihm dienen und ihm anhangen.

⁵ Und jener Prophet oder jener, der die Träume hat, soll getötet werden; denn er hat Abfall geredet wider Jehova, euren Gott, der euch aus dem Lande Ägypten herausgeführt und dich erlöst hat aus dem Hause der Knechtschaft, -um dich abzuleiten von dem Wege, auf welchem zu wandeln Jehova, dein Gott, dir geboten hat. Und du sollst das Böse aus deiner Mitte hinwegschaffen.

⁶ Wenn dein Bruder, der Sohn deiner Mutter, oder dein Sohn, oder deine Tochter, oder das Weib deines Busens, oder dein Freund, der dir wie deine Seele ist, dich heimlich anreizt und spricht: Laß uns gehen und anderen Göttern dienen (die du nicht gekannt hast, du noch deine Väter,

⁷ von den Göttern der Völker, die rings um euch her sind, nahe bei dir oder fern von dir, von einem Ende der Erde bis zum anderen Ende der Erde),

⁸ so sollst du ihm nicht zu Willen sein und nicht auf ihn hören; und dein Auge soll seiner nicht schonen, und du sollst dich seiner nicht erbarmen noch ihn verbergen;

⁹ sondern du sollst ihn gewißlich töten. Deine Hand soll zuerst an ihm sein, ihn zu töten, und danach die Hand des ganzen Volkes;

¹⁰ und du sollst ihn steinigen, daß er sterbe. Denn er hat gesucht, dich abzuleiten von Jehova, deinem Gott, der dich herausgeführt hat aus dem Lande Ägypten, aus dem Hause der Knechtschaft.

¹¹ Und ganz Israel soll es hören und sich fürchten, damit man nicht mehr eine solche Übeltat in deiner Mitte begehe.

¹² Wenn du von einer deiner Städte, die Jehova, dein Gott, dir gibt, um daselbst zu wohnen, sagen hörst:

¹³ Es sind Männer, Söhne Belials, (d. h. ruchlose Männer) aus deiner Mitte ausgegangen und haben die Bewohner ihrer Stadt verleitet und gesprochen: Laßt uns gehen und anderen Göttern dienen (die ihr nicht gekannt habt),

¹⁴ so sollst du genau untersuchen und nachforschen und fragen; und siehe, ist es Wahrheit, steht die Sache fest, ist dieser Greuel in deiner Mitte verübt worden,

¹⁵ so sollst du die Bewohner jener Stadt gewißlich schlagen mit der Schärfe des Schwertes; du sollst sie verbannen und alles, was in ihr ist, und ihr Vieh, mit der Schärfe des Schwertes.

¹⁶ Und alle ihre Beute sollst du mitten auf ihren Platz zusammentragen und die Stadt und alle ihre Beute Jehova, deinem Gott, gänzlich mit Feuer verbrennen; und sie soll ein Schutthaufen sein ewiglich, sie soll nicht wieder aufgebaut werden.

¹⁷ Und nicht soll irgend etwas von dem Verbannten an deiner Hand haften, auf daß Jehova sich von der Glut seines Zornes wende und dir Erbarmung gebe und sich deiner erbarme und dich mehre, so wie er deinen Vätern geschworen hat,

¹⁸ wenn du der Stimme Jehovas, deines Gottes, gehorchst, alle seine Gebote zu beobachten, die ich dir heute gebiete, daß du tust, was recht ist in den Augen Jehovas, deines Gottes.

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.