1My friends, listen to what I am going to teach you;
2I am going to give you some sayings that wise people have said.
3things that we have heard and known previously,
4We will tell these things to our children [LIT],
5He gave laws and commandments to the Israeli people,
6in order that their children would also know them
7In that way, they also would trust in God,
8They would not be like their ancestors,
9The soldiers of the tribe of Ephraim had bows and arrows
10They did not do what they had agreed with God that they would do;
11They forgot what he had done;
12While our ancestors were watching,
13Then he caused the Red Sea to divide,
14He led them by a bright cloud during the day
15He split rocks open in the desert,
16He caused a stream of water to flow from the rock;
17But our ancestors continued to sin against God;
18By demanding that God give them the food that they desired,
19They insulted God by saying, “We don’t think he can supply food for us here in this desert!
20It is true that he struck the rock,
21So, when Yahweh heard that, he became very angry,
22He did that because they did not trust in him,
23But God spoke to the sky above them;
24and then food fell down like rain,
25So the people ate the food that angels eat,
26Later, he caused the wind to blow from the east,
27and the wind brought birds
28God caused those birds to fall dead in the middle of ◄their camp►/the area where the people had put up their tents.
29So the people cooked the birds and ate the meat and their stomachs were full,
30But before they had eaten all that they wanted,
31God was still very angry with them,
32In spite of all that, the people continued to sin;
33So, he caused their lives to end as quickly as a puff of wind ends;
34When God caused some of them to die,
35They remembered that God is like a huge rock ledge under which they would be safe [MET],
36But they tried to deceive God by what they said [MTY];
37They were not loyal to him;
38But God was merciful to his people.
39He remembered/considered that they were only humans who die;
40Many times our ancestors rebelled against God in the desert
41Many times they did evil things, to find out if they could do those things without God punishing them.
42They forgot about his great power,
43They forgot about when he performed many miracles
44He caused the Nile River (OR, their sources of water) to become red like blood,
45He sent among the people of Egypt swarms of flies that bit them,
46He sent locusts to eat their crops
47He sent hail that destroyed the grapevines,
48He sent hail that killed their cattle
49Because God was fiercely angry with the people of Egypt,
50He did not lessen his being angry with them,
51He also caused all the firstborn sons of the people of Egypt to die.
52Then he led his people out of Egypt like a shepherd leads his sheep [SIM],
53He led them safely, and they were not afraid,
54Later he brought them to Canaan, his sacred land,
55He expelled the people-groups while his people were advancing;
56However, the Israeli people rebelled against God, who is greater than any other god,
57Instead, like their ancestors did, they rebelled against God and ◄were not loyal to/did not faithfully obey► him;
58Because they worshiped carved images of their gods on the tops of hills,
59He saw what they were doing and became very angry,
60He no longer appeared to them at Shiloh
61He allowed their enemies to capture the sacred chest,
62Because he was angry with his people,
63Young men were killed in battles,
64Many priests were killed by their enemies’ swords,
65Later, it was as though the Lord awoke from sleeping;
66He pushed their enemies back
67But he did not set up his tent where the people of the tribe of Ephraim lived;
68Instead he chose the area where the tribe of Judah lived;
69He decided to have his temple built there, high up, like his home in heaven;
70He chose David, who served him faithfully,
71where he was taking care of his father’s sheep,
72David took care of the Israeli people sincerely and wholeheartedly,