“Give ear, kO heavens, and I will speak,

and let lthe earth hear the words of my mouth.

2  May mmy teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distill as the dew,

like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and nlike showers upon the herb.

3  For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe ogreatness to our God!

4  p“The Rock, qhis work is perfect,

for rall his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and swithout iniquity,

just and upright is he.

5  They have dealt corruptly with him;

they are no longer his children tbecause they are blemished;

they are ua crooked and twisted generation.

6  Do you thus repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he vyour father, who wcreated you,

who xmade you and established you?

7  yRemember the days of old;

consider the years of many generations;

zask your father, and he will show you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

8  When the Most High agave to the nations their inheritance,

when he bdivided mankind,

he fixed the borders1 of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.2

9  But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

10  “He found him cin a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he dencircled him, he cared for him,

he ekept him as the apple of his eye.

11  fLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

bearing them on its pinions,

12  gthe Lord alone guided him,

hno foreign god was with him.

13  iHe made him ride on the high places of the land,

and he ate the produce of the field,

and he suckled him with jhoney out of the rock,

and koil out of lthe flinty rock.