LEB - Psalms - 78

78:1  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.