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78:1  A maskil of Asaph. Attend, my people, to my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
78:2  I will open my mouth in a parable, unfold the puzzling events of the past.
78:3  What we have heard and know; things our ancestors have recounted to us.
78:4  We do not keep them from our children; we recount them to the next generation, The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord and his strength, the wonders that he performed.
78:5  God made a decree in Jacob, established a law in Israel: Which he commanded our ancestors, they were to teach their children;
78:6  That the next generation might come to know, children yet to be born. In turn they were to recount them to their children,
78:7  that they too might put their confidence in God, And not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments.
78:8  They were not to be like their ancestors, a rebellious and defiant generation, A generation whose heart was not constant, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
78:9  The ranks of Ephraimite archers, retreated on the day of battle.
78:10  They did not keep God’s covenant; they refused to walk according to his law.
78:11  They forgot his deeds, the wonders that he had shown them.
78:12  In the sight of their ancestors God did wonders, in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan.
78:13  He split the sea and led them across, making the waters stand like walls.
78:14  He led them with a cloud by day, all night with the light of fire.
78:15  He split rocks in the desert, gave water to drink, abundant as the deeps of the sea.
78:16  He made streams flow from crags, caused rivers of water to flow down.
78:17  But they went on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
78:18  They tested God in their hearts, demanding the food they craved.
78:19  They spoke against God, and said, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
78:20  True, when he struck the rock, water gushed forth, the wadies flooded. But can he also give bread, or provide meat to his people?”
78:21  The Lord heard and grew angry; fire blazed up against Jacob; anger flared up against Israel.
78:22  For they did not believe in God, did not trust in his saving power.
78:23  So he commanded the clouds above; and opened the doors of heaven.
78:24  God rained manna upon them for food; grain from heaven he gave them.
78:25  Man ate the bread of the angels; food he sent in abundance.
78:26  He stirred up the east wind in the skies; by his might God brought on the south wind.
78:27  He rained meat upon them like dust, winged fowl like the sands of the sea,
78:28  They fell down in the midst of their camp, all round their dwellings.
78:29  They ate and were well filled; he gave them what they had craved.
78:30  But while they still wanted more, and the food was still in their mouths,
78:31  God’s anger flared up against them, and he made a slaughter of their strongest, laying low the youth of Israel.
78:32  In spite of all this they went on sinning, they did not believe in his wonders.
78:33  God ended their days abruptly, their years in sudden death.
78:34  When he slew them, they began to seek him; they again looked for God.
78:35  They remembered that God was their rock, God Most High, their redeemer.
78:36  But they deceived him with their mouths, lied to him with their tongues.
78:37  Their hearts were not constant toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant.
78:38  But God being compassionate forgave their sin; he did not utterly destroy them. Time and again he turned back his anger, unwilling to unleash all his rage.
78:39  He remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passes on and does not return.
78:40  How often they rebelled against God in the wilderness, grieved him in the wasteland.
78:41  Again and again they tested God, provoked the Holy One of Israel.
78:42  They did not remember his power, the day he redeemed them from the foe,
78:43  When he performed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the plain of Zoan.
78:44  God turned their rivers to blood; their streams they could not drink.
78:45  He sent swarms of insects that devoured them, frogs that destroyed them.
78:46  He gave their harvest to the caterpillar, the fruits of their labor to the locust.
78:47  He killed their vines with hail, their sycamores with frost.
78:48  He exposed their cattle to plague, their flocks to pestilence.
78:49  He let loose against them the heat of his anger, wrath, fury, and distress, a band of deadly messengers.
78:50  He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but delivered their animals to the plague.
78:51  He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
78:52  Then God led forth his people like sheep, guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
78:53  He led them on secure and unafraid, while the sea enveloped their enemies.
78:54  And he brought them to his holy mountain, the hill his right hand had won.
78:55  He drove out the nations before them, allotted them as their inherited portion, and settled in their tents the tribes of Israel.
78:56  But they tested and rebelled against God Most High, his decrees they did not observe.
78:57  They turned disloyal, faithless like their ancestors; they proved false like a slack bow.
78:58  They enraged him with their high places, and with their idols provoked him to jealous anger.
78:59  God heard and grew angry; he rejected Israel completely.
78:60  He forsook the shrine at Shiloh, the tent he set up among human beings.
78:61  He gave up his might into captivity, his glorious ark into the hands of the foe.
78:62  God delivered his people to the sword; he was enraged against his heritage.
78:63  Fire consumed their young men; their young women heard no wedding songs.
78:64  Their priests fell by the sword; their widows made no lamentation.
78:65  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting from the effects of wine.
78:66  He put his foes to flight; everlasting shame he dealt them.
78:67  He rejected the tent of Joseph, chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
78:68  God chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
78:69  He built his shrine like the heavens, like the earth which he founded forever.
78:70  He chose David his servant, took him from the sheepfolds.
78:71  From tending ewes God brought him, to shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his heritage.
78:72  He shepherded them with a pure heart; with skilled hands he guided them.