1  Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

2  ^pI will open my mouth in a ^qparable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

3  things that we have heard and known,

that ^rour fathers have told us.

4  ^sWe will not hide them from their children,

but ^ttell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

5  He established a ^utestimony in Jacob

^vand appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

6  that the next generation might know them,

the children ^wyet unborn,

and arise and ^xtell them to their children,

7  so that they should set their hope in God

and not ^yforget the works of God,

but keep his commandments;

8  and that they should not be ^zlike their fathers,

a ^astubborn and ^brebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.