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78:1  Give ear, O my people, to my instruction. Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
78:2  I will open my mouth to share a lesson. I will speak about puzzling problems from long ago,
78:3  things we have heard and known, things our fathers have told us.
78:4  We will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders that he has done.
78:5  He set up testimony for Jacob. In Israel he established the law. He commanded our fathers to make it known to their children.
78:6  Then the next generation would know it, even the children not yet born. They would rise up and tell their children.
78:7  Then they would put their confidence in God, and they would not forget the deeds of God, but they would keep his commands.
78:8  Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation that did not keep their hearts steadfast, whose spirits were not faithful to God.
78:9  The tribe of Ephraim, equipped and armed with bows, deserted on the day of battle.
78:10  They did not keep God’s covenant, and they refused to walk in his law.
78:11  They forgot his deeds, the wonders he had shown to them.
78:12  In the presence of their fathers he had performed a wonder, in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
78:13  He split the sea and let them cross through it. He made the water stand like a wall.
78:14  He led them with the cloud by day and all through the night with light from the fire.
78:15  He split the rocks in the wilderness, and he let them drink water as plentiful as the deep sea.
78:16  He brought streams out of the rocky cliff. He made water flow down like rivers.
78:17  But they continued to sin against him even more, by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
78:18  They tested God in their hearts by demanding food for their cravings.
78:19  Then they spoke against God. They said, “Is God able to set a table in the wilderness?
78:20  Sure, he struck the rock and water flowed out, and stream beds overflowed, but can he really give us bread? Can he really supply meat for his people?”
78:21  Then the Lord heard, and he showed his anger. Fire broke out against Jacob, and his anger rose against Israel,
78:22  because they did not believe in God, and they did not trust in his salvation.
78:23  Nevertheless, he gave a command to the skies above, and he opened the doors of the heavens.
78:24  He rained down manna for them to eat, and he gave them the grain of heaven.
78:25  Each of them ate the bread of the mighty ones. He sent them all the food they could eat.
78:26  He sent out the east wind from the heavens, and he led out the south wind by his power.
78:27  Then he rained meat down on them like dust, and flying birds like sand on the seashore.
78:28  He made the birds fall down inside their camp, all around their dwellings.
78:29  Then they ate until they had more than enough, for he had brought them what they craved.
78:30  They had not yet turned away from what they craved. Their food was still in their mouths.
78:31  Then God’s anger rose up against them. He killed the strongest among them. He cut down the best young men of Israel.
78:32  In spite of all this, they kept sinning, and they did not believe in his wonders.
78:33  So he ended their days in frustration and their years in terror.
78:34  Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him. Then they turned and sought God.
78:35  Then they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
78:36  But then they would deceive him with their mouths, and with their tongues they would lie to him.
78:37  Their hearts were not committed to him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.
78:38  Yet he was compassionate. He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them. Many times he restrained his anger, and he did not stir up his full wrath.
78:39  He still remembered that they were only flesh, like a wind that goes by and does not return.
78:40  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! How often they grieved him in the wasteland!
78:41  They repeatedly put God to the test. They provoked the Holy One of Israel.
78:42  They did not remember the power of his hand— the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
78:43  when he displayed his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
78:44  when he turned their rivers to blood, so they could not drink from their streams.
78:45  He sent against them a swarm of flies that bit them. Then he sent frogs that destroyed them.
78:46  Then he gave their crops to the grasshopper. He gave what they worked for to the locust.
78:47  He killed their grapevines with hail, and their sycamore fig trees with sleet.
78:48  Then he turned over their cattle to hail, and their livestock to lightning bolts.
78:49  He sent against them his burning anger, his wrath and indignation and distress by sending destroying angels.
78:50  He prepared a path for his anger. He did not spare their lives from death, but he delivered their lives to the plague.
78:51  Then he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruit of their virility in the tents of Ham.
78:52  But he led his people out like sheep. He led them like a flock through the wilderness.
78:53  Then he guided them safely, so they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies.
78:54  Then he brought them to the border of his holy land, to this mountain which his right hand had taken.
78:55  He drove out nations before them. He marked the boundaries of their inheritance, and he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
78:56  But they tested him. They rebelled against God Most High, and they did not keep his testimonies.
78:57  Yes, they turned aside and were treacherous like their fathers. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
78:58  Then they angered him with their high places, and they made him jealous with their idols.
78:59  God heard, and he showed his anger. He completely rejected Israel.
78:60  So he abandoned his dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he dwelled among people.
78:61  So he sent the symbol of his strength away into captivity. He gave his splendor into the hand of the foe.
78:62  He also handed over his people to the sword, and he showed his anger against his possession.
78:63  Fire consumed their best young men, so their virgins were not praised in wedding songs.
78:64  Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not weep.
78:65  Then the Lord awoke like someone who has been sleeping, like a warrior overcome by wine.
78:66  Then he drove back his foes. He gave them everlasting shame.
78:67  Then he rejected the tent of Joseph, and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
78:68  But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
78:69  Then he built up his sanctuary like the heights, like the world that he established for all time.
78:70  Then he chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens.
78:71  He brought him from following the mother sheep to shepherd his people Jacob and his possession Israel.
78:72  So he shepherded them with a sincere heart, and with skillful hands he led them.