AB - Psalms - 78

78:1  Give heed, O my people, to my law; incline your ear to the words of my mouth.

78:2  I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings which have been from the beginning.

78:3  All which we have heard and known, and our fathers have declared to us.

78:4  They were not hid from their children to a second generation; the fathers declaring the praises of the Lord, and His mighty acts, and His wonders which He has done.

78:5  And He raised up a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, to make it known to their children;

78:6  that another generation might know, even the sons which should be born; and they should arise and declare them to their children.

78:7  That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but diligently seek His commandments.

78:8  That they should not be as their fathers, a perverse and provoking generation; a generation which set not its heart aright, and its spirit was not steadfast with God.

78:9  The children of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle.

78:10  They kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law.

78:11  And they forgot His benefits, and His miracles which He had shown them;

78:12  the miracles which He did before their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.

78:13  He divided the sea, and led them through; He made the waters to stand as in a bottle.

78:14  And He guided them with a cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire.

78:15  He split a rock in the wilderness, and made them drink as in a great deep.

78:16  And He brought water out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down as rivers.

78:17  And they sinned yet more against Him; they provoked the Most High in the wilderness.

78:18  And they tempted God in their hearts, in asking meat for the desire of their souls.

78:19  They spoke also against God, and said, Will God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness?

78:20  Forasmuch as He struck the rock, and the waters flowed, and the torrents ran abundantly; will He be able also to give bread, or prepare a table for His people?

78:21  Therefore the Lord heard, and was provoked: and fire was kindled in Jacob, and wrath went up against Israel.

78:22  Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.

78:23  Yet He commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

78:24  and rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them the bread of heaven.

78:25  Man ate angels' bread; He sent them provision to the full.

78:26  He removed the south wind from heaven; and by His might He brought in the south west wind.

78:27  And He rained upon them flesh like dust, and feathered birds like the sand on the seashore.

78:28  And they fell into the midst of their camp, round about their tents.

78:29  So they ate, and were completely filled; and He gave them their desire.

78:30  They were not disappointed of their desire, but when their food was yet in their mouth,

78:31  then the indignation of God rose up against them, and slew the fattest of them, and overthrew the choice men of Israel.

78:32  In the midst of all this they sinned yet more, and believed not His miracles.

78:33  And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years with anxiety.

78:34  When He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought diligently after God.

78:35  And they remembered that God was their Helper, and the Most High God was their Redeemer.

78:36  Yet they loved Him only with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue.

78:37  For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant.

78:38  But He is compassionate, and will forgive their sins, and will not destroy them; yea, He will frequently turn away His wrath, and will not kindle all His anger.

78:39  And He remembered that they are flesh; a wind that passes away, and returns not.

78:40  How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and anger Him in a dry land!

78:41  Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

78:42  They remembered not His hand, the day in which He delivered them from the hand of the oppressor.

78:43  How He had worked His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan;

78:44  and had changed their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they should not drink.

78:45  He sent against them the dog-fly, and it devoured them; and the frog, and it spoiled them.

78:46  And He gave their fruit to the canker worm, and their labors to the locust.

78:47  He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.

78:48  And He gave up their cattle to hail, and their substance to the fire.

78:49  He sent out against them the fury of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and affliction, a message by evil angels.

78:50  He made a way for His wrath; He spared not their souls from death, but consigned their cattle to death;

78:51  and He struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt; the firstfruits of their labors in the tents of Ham.

78:52  And He removed His people like sheep; He led them as a flock in the wilderness.

78:53  And He guided them with hope, and they feared not: but the sea covered their enemies.

78:54  And He brought them in to the mountain of His sanctuary, this mountain which His right hand had purchased.

78:55  And He cast out the nations from before them, and made them to inherit by a line of inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

78:56  Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies.

78:57  And they turned back, and broke covenant, even as also their fathers; they became like a crooked bow.

78:58  And they provoked Him with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

78:59  God heard and lightly regarded them, and greatly despised Israel.

78:60  And He rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, His tent where He dwelt among men.

78:61  And He gave their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the enemy's hand.

78:62  And He gave His people to the sword; and disdained His inheritance.

78:63  Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins mourned not.

78:64  Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows shall not be wept for.

78:65  So the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, and as a mighty man who has been heated with wine.

78:66  And He beat back His enemies; He brought on them a perpetual reproach.

78:67  And He rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;

78:68  but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved.

78:69  And He built His sanctuary as the place of unicorns; He founded it forever on the earth.

78:70  He chose David also His servant, and took him up from the flocks of sheep.

78:71  He took him from following the ewes great with young, to be the shepherd of Jacob His servant, and Israel His inheritance.

78:72  So he tended them in the innocence of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.