OEBcth - Psalms - 78

78:1  My people, give ear to my teaching: bend your ears to the words of my mouth,

78:2  as I open my mouth in a poem on the riddling story of the past.

78:3  What we have heard and known, and what our ancestors have told us,

78:4  we will not hide from their children. We will tell to the next generation the praises and might of the Lord, and the wonders that he has done.

78:5  He set up a testimony in Jacob, a law he appointed in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to make known to their children,

78:6  that the next generation should know it, that the children yet to be born should arise and tell their children;

78:7  that in God they might put their confidence, and not forget God’s works; but that they might keep his commandments,

78:8  and not be like their ancestors, a generation defiant and stubborn, a generation with heart unsteady, and spirit unfaithful towards God.

78:9  Ephraimites, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.

78:10  They did not keep God’s covenant, they refused to walk in his law.

78:11  They forgot what he had done, and the wonders he had shown them.

78:12  He did wonders before their ancestors in the country of Zoan in Egypt.

78:13  Through the sea which he split he brought them, making waters stand up like a heap;

78:14  he led them by day with a cloud, all the night with a light of fire.

78:15  From the rocks which he split in the wilderness, he gave them to drink as of ocean’s abundance.

78:16  He brought streams out of the rock, and made water run down like rivers.

78:17  Yet they still went on sinning against him, they defied the Most High in the desert.

78:18  They wilfully challenged God, demanding the food that they longed for.

78:19  “Is God able,“ such was their challenge, “to spread in the desert a table?

78:20  From the rock that he struck there gushed water, and torrents that overflowed; but can he also give bread, or provide his people with meat?”

78:21  When the Lord heard this, he was furious, and fire was kindled on Jacob, anger flared up against Israel.

78:22  For they put no trust in God, no confidence in his help.

78:23  So he summoned the clouds above; and, opening the doors of heaven,

78:24  he rained manna upon them for food, and grain of heaven he gave them.

78:25  Everyone ate the bread of angels; he sent them food to the full.

78:26  He launched the east wind in the heavens, and guided the south by his power.

78:27  He rained meat upon them like dust, winged bird like the sand of the sea.

78:28  In the midst of their camp he dropped it, all around their tents.

78:29  They ate and were more than filled; he had brought them the thing they desired.

78:30  But the thing they desired became loathsome: while their food was still in their mouths,

78:31  the wrath of God rose against them. He slew the stoutest among them, and laid low the young men of Israel.

78:32  Yet for all this they sinned yet more, and refused to believe in his wonders.

78:33  So he ended their days in a breath, and their years in sudden dismay.

78:34  When he slew them, then they sought after him, they turned and sought God with diligence.

78:35  They remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.

78:36  But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

78:37  Their heart was not steady with him, they were faithless to his covenant.

78:38  But he is full of pity: he pardons sin and destroys not. Often he turns his anger away, without stirring his wrath at all.

78:39  So he remembered that they were but flesh, breath that passes and does not return.

78:40  But how often they rebelled in the desert, and caused him grief in the wilderness,

78:41  tempting God again and again, provoking the Holy One of Israel.

78:42  They did not remember his strength, nor the day he redeemed from the foe,

78:43  how he set his signs in Egypt, in the country of Zoan his wonders.

78:44  He turned their canals into blood, their streams undrinkable.

78:45  He sent forth flies, which devoured them; frogs, too, which destroyed them.

78:46  Their crops he gave to the caterpillar, and the fruits of their toil to the locust.

78:47  He slew their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

78:48  He delivered their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.

78:49  He let loose his hot anger among them, fury and wrath and distress, a band of destroying angels.

78:50  He cleared a path for his anger, did not spare them from death, but gave them over to pestilence.

78:51  He struck down all the first-born in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

78:52  He led forth his people like sheep, he was guide to his flock in the desert.

78:53  Securely he led them, and free from fear, while their foes were drowned in the sea.

78:54  To his holy realm he brought them, to the mountain his right hand had purchased.

78:55  He drove out the nations before them, and allotted their land for possession, and their tents for Israel to live in.

78:56  Yet they tempted and angered the Most High God, they did not observe his decrees.

78:57  They drew back, false like their ancestors; they failed like a treacherous bow.

78:58  Their shrines stirred him to anger, their idols moved him to jealousy.

78:59  When God heard of this, he was furious, and he spurned Israel utterly.

78:60  He abandoned his home in Shiloh, the tent he had pitched among people.

78:61  He gave his strength up to captivity, his glory to the hands of the foe.

78:62  He gave his people to the sword, he was furious with his own.

78:63  Fire devoured their young men, and their maidens had no marriage-song.

78:64  Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.

78:65  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior flushed with wine;

78:66  and he beat back his foes, putting them to perpetual scorn.

78:67  He disowned the tent of Joseph, he rejected the tribe of Ephraim;

78:68  but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.

78:69  And he built like the heights his sanctuary, like the earth which he founded forever.

78:70  And he chose David his servant, taking him from the sheepfolds.

78:71  From the mother-ewes he brought him, to be shepherd to Jacob his people, and to Israel his inheritance.

78:72  With upright heart did he shepherd them, and with skilful hands did he guide them.