Home Master Index
←Prev   Psalms 78 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


78:1  A maskil of Asaph. Listen, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2  I will offer a parable with my mouth. I will pour out riddles from long ago,
78:3  that we have heard and known, and our ancestors have told us.
78:4  We will not hide them from their children, telling the next generation the praises of Yahweh, and his power and his wonders that he has done.
78:5  For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children,
78:6  so that the next generation might know— children yet to be born— that they might rise up and tell their children,
78:7  that they might set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments,
78:8  and not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
78:9  The sons of Ephraim, armed with archers, turned back on the day of battle.
78:10  They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to go in his law.
78:11  They also forgot his deeds, and his wonders that he had shown them.
78:12  In front of their ancestors he did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
78:13  He split the sea and caused them to go over, and he caused waters to stand like a heap.
78:14  And he led them with the cloud by day, and all night with a fiery light.
78:15  He caused rocks to split in the wilderness and provided drink abundantly as from the depths.
78:16  And he brought streams out of the rock and caused water to flow down like rivers.
78:17  But they sinned still further against him by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
78:18  And they tested God in their heart by asking food for their craving.
78:19  And they spoke against God. They said, “Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
78:20  Yes, he struck the rock and water flowed and streams gushed out, but can he also give food or provide meat for his people?”
78:21  Therefore Yahweh heard and he was very angry, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger also rose up against Israel,
78:22  because they did not believe God, and they did not trust his salvation.
78:23  Nevertheless, he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,
78:24  and rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.
78:25  Humankind ate the bread of angels. He sent them food enough to be satisfied.
78:26  He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and drove along the south wind by his strength.
78:27  Then he rained meat on them like dust, even winged birds like the sand of the seas.
78:28  He caused them to fall in the midst of his camp, all around his dwellings.
78:29  So they ate and were well filled, and he brought about what they craved.
78:30  They had not yet turned aside from their craving, while their food was still in their mouth,
78:31  the anger of God rose against them, and he killed some of the stoutest of them, even the young men of Israel he caused to bow down in death.
78:32  In spite of all this they sinned further and did not believe his wonders.
78:33  And he consumed their days with futility their years with terror.
78:34  When he killed some of them, then they sought him, and repented and earnestly sought God.
78:35  And they remembered that God was their rock, and God Most High their redeemer.
78:36  But they enticed him with their mouth and lied to him with their tongue.
78:37  For their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful to his covenant.
78:38  But he was compassionate; he pardoned their guilt and did not destroy them. And many times he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath,
78:39  for he remembered that they were flesh, a passing wind that does not return.
78:40  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and vexed him in the wasteland!
78:41  So they again tested God and distressed the Holy One of Israel.
78:42  And they did not remember his power when he redeemed them from the enemy,
78:43  how he performed 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 among them flies that devoured them and frogs that destroyed them.
78:46  And he gave their crop to the locusts and their labor to the locust.
78:47  He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with sleet.
78:48  He also handed their cattle over to the hail and their livestock to the lightning bolts.
78:49  He sent against them his fierce anger, rage and indignation and trouble, a band of destroying angels.
78:50  He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death but handed their life over to the plague.
78:51  And he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their virility in the tents of Ham.
78:52  Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them like a herd in the wilderness.
78:53  And he led them safely and they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies.
78:54  So he brought them to his holy territory, this mountain his right hand acquired.
78:55  And he drove out nations before them and allocated them for an inheritance by boundary line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
78:56  But they tested and rebelled against God Most High and did not keep his statutes.
78:57  And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors. They twisted like a crooked bow.
78:58  For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and made him jealous with their images.
78:59  God heard and he was very angry and rejected Israel utterly.
78:60  So he abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, the tent he had placed among humankind.
78:61  And he gave his strength into captivity and his splendor into the hand of the enemy.
78:62  He also handed his people over to the sword, and he was very angry with his inheritance.
78:63  Fire devoured his young men, and his young women were not praised.
78:64  His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.
78:65  Then the Lord awoke like one who had been asleep, awoke like a warrior who had been drunk with wine.
78:66  And he beat back his enemies; he gave them over to perpetual scorn.
78:67  And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not chose the tribe of Ephraim,
78:68  but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion that he loved.
78:69  And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
78:70  And he chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds.
78:71  He brought him from following nursing ewes to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
78:72  And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.