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78:1  A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter insightful sayings of old,
78:3  which we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
78:4  We will not hide them from their children, but will tell the coming generation the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and the wonderful works that He has done.
78:5  For He established a rule in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children,
78:6  that the generation to come might know them, even the children who are not yet born, who will arise and declare them to their children:
78:7  that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments,
78:8  and they might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart steadfast, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
78:9  The people of Ephraim, being armed with bows, turned back in the day of battle.
78:10  They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law;
78:11  and they forgot His works and the wonders that He had shown them.
78:12  In the sight of their ancestors He did marvelous wonders in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
78:13  He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
78:14  In the daytime He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
78:15  He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundance to drink as out of the great depths.
78:16  He brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
78:17  They sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
78:18  They tested God in their heart by demanding the food that they craved.
78:19  They spoke against God by saying, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
78:20  Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread or provide meat for His people?”
78:21  Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel,
78:22  because they did not believe in God nor trust in His deliverance.
78:23  Yet He had commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,
78:24  and He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.
78:25  Man ate the food of mighty angels; He sent them bread in abundance.
78:26  He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens, and by His power He brought out a south wind.
78:27  He rained meat on them as dust, and winged birds as the sand of the sea;
78:28  and He let them fall in the midst of their camp all around their habitations.
78:29  So they ate and were satisfied, for He gave them their own desire;
78:30  while they were not yet filled up, and while the meat was still in their mouths,
78:31  the wrath of God came upon them, and He killed the strongest of them and struck down the young men of Israel.
78:32  For all this they sinned still, and did not believe despite His wondrous works.
78:33  Therefore He made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in trouble.
78:34  When He killed them, then they sought Him; they turned back and longed for God.
78:35  They remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
78:36  Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongues;
78:37  for their heart was not devoted to Him, neither were they committed to His covenant.
78:38  But He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He constantly restrained His anger, and did not stir up all His wrath;
78:39  for He remembered that they were but flesh, like a wind that passes away and does not return.
78:40  How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
78:41  Yes, they tested God over and over, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
78:42  They did not remember His power, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
78:43  how He had performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan:
78:44  and He turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink from their streams.
78:45  He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
78:46  He gave also their crops to the grasshopper and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
78:47  He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost.
78:48  He gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.
78:49  He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending angels bringing disaster.
78:50  He made a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague,
78:51  And struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
78:52  Then He led out His own people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
78:53  He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
78:54  He brought them to the border of His holy land, to the mountain that His right hand had acquired.
78:55  He cast out the nations also before them, and divided for them their tribal allotments, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
78:56  Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His commands,
78:57  but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they turned aside like a deceitful bow.
78:58  For they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
78:59  When God heard this, He was full of wrath and greatly rejected Israel
78:60  so that He left the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where He lived among people,
78:61  and delivered His strength to captivity and His glory into the enemy’s hand.
78:62  He gave His people over also to the sword; He was enraged with His inheritance.
78:63  The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage in song.
78:64  Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
78:65  Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.
78:66  He routed His enemies back, and He made them a perpetual reproach.
78:67  Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph, and He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
78:68  but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loves.
78:69  He built His sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth that He has established perpetually.
78:70  He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;
78:71  from following the nursing ewes He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
78:72  So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.