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78:1  A maskil by Asaph. Open your ears to my teachings, my people. Turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
78:2  I will open my mouth to illustrate points. I will explain what has been hidden long ago,
78:3  things that we have heard and known about, things that our parents have told us.
78:4  We will not hide them from our children. We will tell the next generation about Yahweh’s power and great deeds and the miraculous things he has done.
78:5  He established written instructions for Jacob’s people. He gave his teachings to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children
78:6  so that the next generation would know them. Children yet to be born would learn them. They will grow up and tell their children
78:7  to trust Elohim, to remember what he has done, and to obey his commands.
78:8  Then they will not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation. Their hearts were not loyal. Their spirits were not faithful to El.
78:9  The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows and arrows, turned and ran on the day of battle.
78:10  They had not been faithful to Elohim’s promise. They refused to follow his teachings.
78:11  They forgot what he had done— the miracles that he had shown them.
78:12  In front of their ancestors he performed miracles in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
78:13  He divided the sea and led them through it. He made the waters stand up like a wall.
78:14  He guided them by a cloud during the day and by a fiery light throughout the night.
78:15  He split rocks in the desert. He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water.
78:16  He made streams come out of a rock. He made the water flow like rivers.
78:17  They continued to sin against him, to rebel in the desert against Elyon.
78:18  They deliberately tested Elohim by demanding the food they craved.
78:19  They spoke against Elohim by saying, “Can El prepare a banquet in the desert?
78:20  True, he did strike a rock, and water did gush out, and the streams did overflow. But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?”
78:21  When Yahweh heard this, he became furious. His fire burned against Jacob and his anger flared up at Israel
78:22  because they did not believe Elohim or trust him to save them.
78:23  In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.
78:24  He rained manna down on them to eat and gave them grain from heaven.
78:25  Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones, and Elohim sent them plenty of food.
78:26  He made the east wind blow in the heavens and guided the south wind with his might.
78:27  He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like the sand on the seashore.
78:28  He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling place.
78:29  They ate more than enough. He gave them what they wanted,
78:30  but they still wanted more. While the food was still in their mouths,
78:31  the anger of Elohim flared up against them. He killed their strongest men and slaughtered the best young men in Israel.
78:32  In spite of all this, they continued to sin, and they no longer believed in his miracles.
78:33  He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind. He brought their years to an end in terror.
78:34  When he killed some of them, the rest searched for him. They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for El.
78:35  They remembered that Elohim was their rock, that El Elyon was their Go’el.
78:36  They flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues.
78:37  Their hearts were not loyal to him. They were not faithful to his promise.
78:38  But he is compassionate. He forgave their sin. He did not destroy them. He restrained his anger many times. He did not display all of his fury.
78:39  He remembered that they were only flesh and blood, a breeze that blows and does not return.
78:40  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! How often they caused him grief in the desert!
78:41  Again and again they tested Elohim, and they pushed Qedosh Yisrael to the limit.
78:42  They did not remember his power— the day he freed them from their oppressor,
78:43  when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
78:44  He turned their rivers into blood so that they could not drink from their streams.
78:45  He sent a swarm of flies that bit them and frogs that ruined them.
78:46  He gave their crops to grasshoppers and their produce to locusts.
78:47  He killed their vines with hail and their fig trees with frost.
78:48  He let the hail strike their cattle and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
78:49  He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them. He sent an army of destroying angels.
78:50  He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them. He let the plague take their lives.
78:51  He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt, the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.
78:52  But he led his own people out like sheep and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
78:53  He led them safely. They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
78:54  He brought them into his holy land, to this mountain that his power had won.
78:55  He forced nations out of their way and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
78:56  They tested Elohim Elyon and rebelled against him. They did not obey his written instructions.
78:57  They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
78:58  They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites. They made him furious because they worshiped idols.
78:59  When Elohim heard, he became furious. He completely rejected Israel.
78:60  He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh, the tent where he had lived among humans.
78:61  He allowed his power to be taken captive and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
78:62  He let swords kill his people. He was furious with those who belonged to him.
78:63  Fire consumed his best young men, so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
78:64  His priests were cut down with swords. The widows of his priests could not even weep for them.
78:65  Then Adonay woke up like one who had been sleeping, like a warrior sobering up from too much wine.
78:66  He struck his enemies from behind and disgraced them forever.
78:67  He rejected the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
78:68  but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
78:69  He built his holy place to be like the high heavens, like the earth which he made to last for a long time.
78:70  He chose his servant David. He took him from the sheep pens.
78:71  He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob, of Israel, the people who belonged to Yahweh.
78:72  With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd. With skill he guided them.