Evening Prayer: Friday 28 November 2025

1. Hear my teaching, O my people; *
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2. I will open my mouth in a parable; *
I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

3. That which we have heard and known, and what our ancestors have told us, *
we will not hide from their children.

4. We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the Lord, *
who has done wonderful works.

5. The Lord gave a decree to Jacob and established a law for Israel, *
commanding them to teach their children;

6. that the generations to come might know, and the children yet unborn; *
that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

7. so that they might put their trust in God, *
and not forget those mighty deeds, but keep the commandments;

8. and not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, *
a generation whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9. The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, *
turned back in the day of battle;

10. they did not keep the covenant of God, *
and refused to walk in the law;

11. they forgot what God had done, *
and the wonders God had shown them.

12. God worked marvels in the sight of their
ancestors, *
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan,

13. splitting open the sea and letting them pass through, *
making the waters stand up like walls;

14. leading them with a cloud by day, *
and all the night through with the glow of fire;

15. splitting hard rocks in the wilderness, *
and giving them drink as from the great deep;
16. bringing streams out of the cliff, *
and the waters gushing out like rivers.

17. But they went on sinning against God, *
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18. They tested God in their hearts, *
demanding food for their craving.

19. They railed against God and said, *
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?

20. True, God struck the rock, the waters gushed out,
and the gullies overflowed; *
but is God able to give bread or to provide meat for this people?”

21. Hearing this, the Lord was full of wrath; *
a fire was kindled against Jacob, and the divine anger mounted against Israel;

22. for they had no faith in God, *
nor did they put their trust in the saving power of God

23. So God commanded the clouds above *
and opened the doors of heaven,

24. raining down manna upon them to eat *
and giving them grain from heaven.

25. So mortals ate the bread of angels; *
God provided for them food enough.

26. The Lord caused the east wind to blow in the heavens *
and powerfully led out the south wind,

27. raining down flesh upon them like dust *
and winged birds like the sand of the sea,

28. letting it fall in the midst of their camp *
and round about their dwellings.

29. So they ate and were well filled, *
for God gave them what they craved.

30. But they did not stop their craving, *
though the food was still in their mouths.

31. So the anger of God mounted against them; *
the Lord slew their strongest men and laid low the youth of Israel.

32. In spite of all this, they went on sinning *
and had no faith in the wonderful works of God.

33. So the Lord brought their days to an end like a breath *
and their years in sudden terror.

34. Whenever God slew them, they would seek the Lord, *
and repent and diligently search for God.

35. They would remember that God was their rock, *
and the Most High God their redeemer.


36. But they flattered God with their mouths *
and lied with their tongues.

37. Their heart was not steadfast *
nor were they faithful to the covenant.

38. But God, being merciful, forgave their sins and did not destroy them, *
holding back the divine anger and not permitting wrath to be roused.

39. For the Lord remembered that they were but
flesh, *
a breath that goes forth and does not return.

40. How often the people disobeyed God in the wilderness *
and offended in the desert!

41. Again and again they tempted God *
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42. They did not remember the power of God *
in the day when the Lord ransomed them from the enemy;

43. how God wrought signs in Egypt *
and omens in the field of Zoan,

44. turning their rivers into blood, *
so that they could not drink of their streams;

45. sending swarms of flies among them, which ate them up, *
and frogs, which destroyed them;

46. giving their crops to the caterpillar, *
the fruit of their toil to the locust;

47. killing their vines with hail *
and their sycamores with frost;

48. delivering their cattle to hailstones *
and their livestock to hot thunderbolts.

49. God poured out upon them blazing anger: *
fury, indignation and distress, a troop of destroying angels.

50. Giving full rein to anger, God did not spare their souls from death, *
but delivered their lives to the plague,

51. striking down all the firstborn of Egypt, *
the flower of youth in the dwellings of Ham.

52. God led this people like sheep *
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53. The Lord led them to safety, and they were not afraid; *
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54. God brought them to the holy land, *
the mountain the strong hand of God had won.

55. God drove out the Canaanites before them and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot, *
making the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56. But they tested and defied the Most High *
and did not keep the commandments.

57. They turned away and were disloyal like their ancestors; *
they were undependable like a warped bow.

58. They grieved God with their hill-altars *
and provoked displeasure with their idols.

59. Hearing this, God was angry *
and utterly rejected Israel;

60. forsaking the shrine at Shiloh, *
the tabernacle where God had lived among this people;

61. delivering the ark into captivity, *
the glory of God into the adversary’s hand;

62. giving this people to the sword *
and becoming angry against the very inheritance of God.

63. The fire consumed their young men; *
there were no wedding songs for their young women.

64. Their priests fell by the sword, *
and their widows made no lamentation.

65. Then the Lord woke as though from sleep, *
like a warrior refreshed with wine,

66. striking the enemies of God on the backside *
and putting them to perpetual shame.

67. God rejected the tent of Joseph *
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68. choosing instead the tribe of Judah *
and Mount Zion, beloved by God,

69. where a sanctuary was built like the heights of heaven, *
like the everlasting earth.

70. God chose David as a servant *
and took him away from the sheepfolds,

71. bringing him from following the ewes, *
to be a shepherd over Jacob God’s people and over the inheritance of Israel.

72. So David shepherded them with a faithful and true heart *
and guided them with the skillfulness of God’s hands.