I Will Open My Mouth in Parables
(Matthew 13:34–35)

1A Psalme to giue instruction comitted to Asaph. Heare my doctrine, O my people: incline your eares vnto the wordes of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of olde.

3Which we haue heard and knowen, & our fathers haue tolde vs.

4Wee will not hide them from their children but to the generation to come we wil shewe the praises of the Lord his power also, & his wonderful woorkes that he hath done:

5How he established a testimonie in Iaakob, and ordeined a Law in Israel, which he commaunded our fathers, that they shoulde teache their children:

6That the posteritie might knowe it, and the children, which should be borne, should stand vp, and declare it to their children:

7That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the workes of God but keepe his commandements:

8And not to bee as their fathers, a disobedient & rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirite was not faithfull vnto God.

9The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bowe, turned backe in the day of battell.

10They kept not the couenant of God, but refused to walke in his Lawe,

11And forgate his Actes, and his wonderfull woorkes that he had shewed them.

12Hee did marueilous thinges in the sight of their fathers in the lande of Egypt: euen in the fielde of Zoan.

13He deuided the Sea, & led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heape.

14In the day time also hee led them with a cloude, and all the night with a light of fire.

15He claue the rockes in the wildernes, and gaue them drinke as of the great depths.

16He brought floods also out of the stonie rocke; so that hee made the waters to descend like the riuers.

17Yet they sinned stil against him, and prouoked the Highest in the wildernesse,

18And tempted God in their heartes in requiring meate for their lust.

19They spake against God also, saying, Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse?

20Behold, he smote the rocke, that the water gushed out, and the streames ouerflowed: can hee giue bread also? or prepare flesh for his people?

21Therefore the Lord heard and was angrie, and the fire was kindled in Iaakob, & also wrath came vpon Israel,

22Because they beleeued not in God, and trusted not in his helpe.

23Yet he had comanded the clouds aboue, and had opened the doores of heauen,

24And had rained downe MAN vpon them for to eate, and had giuen them of the wheate of heauen.

25Man did eate the bread of Angels: hee sent them meate ynough.

26He caused the Eastwinde to passe in the heauen, and through his power he brought in the Southwinde.

27Hee rained flesh also vpon them as dust, and feathered foule as the sand of the sea.

28And hee made it fall in the middes of their campe euen round about their habitations.

29So they did eate and were well filled: for he gaue them their desire.

30They were not turned from their lust, but the meate was yet in their mouthes,

31When the wrath of God came euen vpon them, and slew the strongest of them, and smote downe the chosen men in Israel.

32For all this, they sinned stil, and beleeued not his wonderous woorkes.

33Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily.

34And when hee slewe them, they sought him and they returned, and sought God earely.

35And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer.

36But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue.

37For their heart was not vpright with him: neither were they faithfull in his couenant.

38Yet he being merciful forgaue their iniquitie, & destroied them not, but oft times called backe his anger, & did not stirre vp all his wrath.

39For he remebred that they were flesh: yea, a winde that passeth and commeth not againe.

40How oft did they prouoke him in the wildernes? and grieue him in the desert?

41Yea, they returned, & tempted God, and limited the Holie one of Israel.

42They remebred not his hand, nor the day when he deliuered them from the enemie,

43Nor him that set his signes in Egypt, and his wonders in the fielde of Zoan,

44And turned their riuers into blood, & their floods, that they could not drinke.

45Hee sent a swarme of flies among them, which deuoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.

46He gaue also their fruites vnto the caterpiller, and their labour vnto the grassehopper.

47He destroied their vines with haile, & their wilde figge trees with the hailestone.

48He gaue their cattell also to the haile, and their flockes to the thunderboltes.

49Hee cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger, indignation and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of euill Angels.

50He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soule from death, but gaue their life to the pestilence,

51And smote al the firstborne in Egypt, euen the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.

52But hee made his people to goe out like sheepe, & led them in the wildernes like a flocke.

53Yea, he caried them out safely, and they feared not, and the Sea couered their enemies.

54And he brought them vnto the borders of his Sanctuarie: euen to this Mountaine, which his right hand purchased.

55He cast out the heathe also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.

56Yet they tempted, and prouoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies,

57But turned backe & delt falsely like their fathers: they turned like a deceitfull bowe.

58And they prouoked him to anger with their high places, and mooued him to wrath with their grauen images.

59God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel,

60So that hee forsooke the habitation of Shilo, euen the Tabernacle where hee dwelt among men,

61And deliuered his power into captiuitie, and his beautie into the enemies hand.

62And hee gaue vp his people to the sworde, and was angrie with his inheritance.

63The fire deuoured their chosen men, and their maides were not praised.

64Their Priestes fell by the sworde, and their widowes lamented not.

65But the Lord awaked as one out of sleepe, & as a strong man that after his wine crieth out,

66And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetuall shame.

67Yet he refused the tabernacle of Ioseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

68But chose the tribe of Iudah, and mount Zion which he loued.

69And he built his Sanctuarie as an high palace, like the earth, which he stablished for euer.

70He chose Dauid also his seruant, and tooke him from the shepefolds.

71Euen from behinde the ewes with yong brought he him to feede his people in Iaakob, and his inheritance in Israel.

72So he fed them according to the simplicitie of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.