Psalms 78
A contemplation to Asaph.
78:1Take heed, O my people, to my law! Lean your ear to the words of my mouth!
78:2I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter riddles from the beginning;
78:3as many as we heard and we know them, and our fathers described to us.
78:4They were not hidden from their children for another generation; but are reporting the praises of the lord, and his dominations, and his wonders which he did.
78:5For he raised up a testimony in Jacob, and he put a law in Israel, which he gave charge to our fathers, to make them known to their sons;
78:6so that another generation should know -- the sons being birthed. And they shall rise up and report them to their sons,
78:7that they should put their hope upon God, and should not forget the works of God, but shall inquire of his commandments;
78:8that they should not become as their fathers -- a crooked and greatly embittered generation; a generation which did not straightened out its own heart, and its spirit was not trustworthy with God.
78:9The sons of Ephraim stretching tight and shooting with bows, turned back in the day of battle.
78:10They did not guard the covenant of God, and they did not want to go by his law.
78:11And they forgot his good works, and his wonders which he showed to them,
78:12before their fathers; what wonders he did in the land of Egypt in the plain of Tanis.
78:13How he tore up the sea, and led them through; and he stood the waters as a water bag.
78:14And he guided them with a cloud by day, and the entire night with the illumination of fire.
78:15He tore open the rock in the wilderness, and he gave them a drink as in a vast deep.
78:16And he brought water from the rock, and he led it down as rivers of waters.
78:17And they proceeded still to sin against him; they greatly embittered the highest in a waterless place.
78:18And they put God to the test in their hearts, to ask foods for their lives.
78:19And they spoke ill of God. And they said, Shall God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
78:20For when he struck the rock, and there flowed waters, and rushing streams inundated, shall also he be able to give bread or prepare a table for his people?
78:21On account of this the lord heard, and was raised in anger. And a fire was lit in Jacob, and anger ascended upon Israel.
78:22For they did not trust in God, nor did they hope upon his deliverance.
78:23And he gave charge to clouds far above, and the doors of heaven were opened,
78:24and manna rained upon them to eat; and he gave to them the bread of heaven.
78:25Man ate bread of angels; he sent to them provisions in fullness.
78:26He departed the south wind from heaven, and he brought on by his power the southwest wind.
78:27And he rained flesh upon them as dust; even feathered winged creatures as the sand of the seas.
78:28And they fell in the midst of their camp round about their tents.
78:29And they ate, and were filled up exceedingly. And he brought their desire to them.
78:30They were not deprived of their desire; but food was in their mouth,
78:31and the anger of God ascended upon them; and he killed in their plenty; and the chosen ones of Israel he impeded.
78:32In all these things they sinned still, and did not trust in his wonders.
78:33And their days ended in folly, and their years with haste.
78:34Whenever he killed them, then they sought him; and they turned and rose early to search for God.
78:35And they remembered that God is their helper, and God the Highest is their ransomer.
78:36And they loved him by their mouth, but by their tongue they lied to him.
78:37And their heart was not straight with him, nor did they trust in his covenant.
78:38But he is one pitying, and he shall atone their sins, and he will not utterly destroy. And he will fill the turning of his rage, and shall not kindle all his anger.
78:39And he remembered that they are flesh; a wind going forth and not returning.
78:40How often they greatly embittered him in the wilderness; they provoked him to anger in a waterless land.
78:41And they turned and tested God; even the holy one of Israel they provoked.
78:42They did not remember his hand the day of which he ransomed them from out of the hand of one afflicting;
78:43or how he made his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the plain of Tanis;
78:44and he converted their rivers into blood, and their showers so as to not drink.
78:45He sent to them the dog-fly, and it devoured them; and the frog, and it ruined them.
78:46And he appointed the blight for their fruits; and the locust for their miseries.
78:47He killed their grapevine by hail, and their sycamine trees by the frost.
78:48And he delivered up their cattle unto hail, and their possessions to the fire.
78:49He sent out to them the anger of his rage; rage and anger and affliction; a commission through wicked angels.
78:50He opened the road of his anger; he did not spare their souls from death; and he consigned their cattle to death.
78:51And he struck every first-born in the land of Egypt; first-fruit of all their toil in the tents of Ham.
78:52And he departed his people as sheep; and he led them up as a flock in the wilderness.
78:53And he guided them with hope; and they were not timid, and the sea covered their enemies.
78:54And he brought them into his sanctified mountain; this mountain which his right hand acquired.
78:55And he cast out nations before their face, and he allotted them by a line of inheritance. And he encamped the tribes of Israel among their tents.
78:56And they tested and greatly embittered God the highest; and his testimonies they did not keep.
78:57And they turned and annulled, as also their fathers converted into a crooked bow.
78:58And they provoked him to anger in their hills; and in their carvings they provoked him to jealousy.
78:59God heard, and he overlooked; and he treated Israel with contempt exceedingly.
78:60And he thrust away the tent of Shiloh, the tent in which he encamped among men.
78:61And he delivered up their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the hands of the enemies.
78:62And he consigned his people by the broadsword; and his inheritance he overlooked.
78:63Their young men were devoured by fire, and their virgins were not mourned for.
78:64Their priests fell by the broadsword, and their widows shall not be wept over.
78:65And the lord awakened as from sleep; as a mighty one being dizzy from wine.
78:66And he struck his enemies unto the rear; he appointed them for eternal scorn.
78:67And he thrust away the tent of Joseph; and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose.
78:68He chose the tribe of Judah, mount Zion which he loved.
78:69And he built his sanctuary as the unicorn in the earth; he laid its foundation into the eon.
78:70And he chose David his servant; and he took him from out of the flocks of the sheep;
78:71even from behind the ones giving birth he took him, to tend Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance.
78:72And he tended them in the innocence of his heart; and in the skillfulness of his hands he guided them.