¶The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk according to His law;
And they forgot His [incredible] works
And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.
He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].
He divided the [Red] Sea and allowed them to pass through it,
And He made the waters stand up like [water behind] a dam. [Ex 14:22]
In the daytime He led them with a cloud
And all the night with a light of fire. [Ex 13:21; 14:24]
He split rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant [water to] drink like the ocean depths.
He brought streams also from the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh]
And caused waters to run down like rivers. [Ex 17:6; Num 20:11]
¶Yet they still continued to sin against Him
By rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
And in their hearts they put God to the test
By asking for food according to their [selfish] appetite.
Then they spoke against God;
They said, “Can God prepare [food for] a table in the wilderness?
“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out
And the streams overflowed;
Can He give bread also?
Or will He provide meat for His people?”
¶Therefore, when the LORD heard, He was full of wrath;
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
And His anger mounted up against Israel,
Because they did not believe in God [they did not rely on Him, they did not adhere to Him],
And they did not trust in His salvation (His power to save).
Yet He commanded the clouds from above
And opened the doors of heaven;
And He rained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them the grain of heaven. [Ex 16:14; John 6:31]
Man ate the bread of angels;
God sent them provision in abundance.
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
And by His [unlimited] power He guided the south wind.
He rained meat upon them like the dust,
And winged birds (quail) like the sand of the seas. [Num 11:31]
And He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
Around their tents.
So they ate and were well filled,
He gave them what they craved.
Before they had satisfied their desire,
And while their food was in their mouths, [Num 11:33]
The wrath of God rose against them
And killed some of the strongest of them,
And subdued the choice young men of Israel.
In spite of all this they still sinned,
For they did not believe in His wonderful and extraordinary works.
Therefore He consumed their days like a breath [in emptiness and futility]
And their years in sudden terror.
¶When He killed [some of] them, then those remaining sought Him,
And they returned [to Him] and searched diligently for God [for a time].
And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths
And lied to Him with their tongues.
For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful to His covenant. [Acts 8:21]
But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;
Many times He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.
For He [graciously] remembered that they were mere [human] flesh,
A wind that goes and does not return.
¶How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!
Again and again they tempted God,
And distressed the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember [the miracles worked by] His [powerful] hand,
Nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
How He worked His miracles in Egypt
And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided],
And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them,
And frogs which destroyed them.
He also gave their crops to the grasshopper,
And the fruit of their labor to the locust.
He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones,
And their flocks and herds to thunderbolts. [Ex 9:18-21]
He sent upon them His burning anger, [Ex 12:23]
His fury and indignation and distress,
A band of angels of destruction [among them].
He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned over their lives to the plague.
He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first and best of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.
But God led His own people forward like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock.
He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies. [Ex 14:27, 28]
¶So He brought them to His holy land,
To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.
He also drove out the nations before the sons of Israel
And allotted their land as an inheritance, measured out and partitioned;
And He had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents [the tents of those who had been dispossessed].
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies (laws).
They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].
For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [devoted to idol worship]
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images [by denying Him the love, worship, and obedience that is rightfully and uniquely His].
When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath;
And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways]
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