Psalms 81
1 Unto the end. For the wine and oil presses. A Psalm of Asaph himself. Exult before God our helper. Sing joyfully to the God of Jacob.
Sing aloud unto Elohim our strength: make a joyful noise unto the Elohim of Jacob.
2 Take up a psalm, and bring forth the timbrel: a pleasing Psalter with stringed instruments.
Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Sound the trumpet at the new moon, on the noteworthy day of your solemnity,
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 for it is a precept in Israel and a judgment for the God of Jacob.
For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the Elohim of Jacob.
5 He set it as a testimony with Joseph, when he went out of the land of Egypt. He heard a tongue that he did not know.
This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 He turned the burdens away from his back. His hands had been a slave to baskets.
I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 You called upon me in tribulation, and I freed you. I heard you within the hidden tempest. I tested you with waters of contradiction.
Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. (Selah)
8 My people, listen and I will call you to testify. If, O Israel, you will pay heed to me,
Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
9 then there will be no new god among you, nor will you adore a foreign god.
There shall no strange elohim be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange el.
10 For I am the Lord your God, who led you out of the land of Egypt. Widen your mouth, and I will fill it.
I am YHWH thy Elohim, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people did not hear my voice, and Israel was not attentive to me.
But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 And so, I sent them away, according to the desires of their heart. They will go forth according to their own inventions.
So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 If my people had heard me, if Israel had walked in my ways,
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I would have humbled their enemies, as if it were nothing, and I would have sent my hand upon those who troubled them.
I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The enemies of the Lord have lied to him, and their time will come, in every age.
The haters of YHWH should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 And he fed them from the fat of the grain, and he saturated them with honey from the rock.
He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
