Psalm 81

Revised Standard Version

I hear a voice I had not known:
⁶ “I relieved your^[b] shoulder of the burden;
    your^[c] hands were freed from the basket.
⁷ In distress you called, and I delivered you;
    I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
    I tested you at the waters of Mer′ibah.Selah
⁸ Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹¹ “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would have none of me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.
¹³ O that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!
¹⁴ I would soon subdue their enemies,
    and turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
    and their fate would last for ever.
¹⁶ I would feed you^[d] with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”