< Psalms 78 >
1 AN INSTRUCTION OF ASAPH. Give ear, O my people, to my law, Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth.
2 I open my mouth with an allegory, I bring forth hidden things of old,
3 That we have heard and know, And our fathers have recounted to us.
4 We do not hide from their sons, Recounting praises of YHWH to a later generation, And His strength, and His wonders that He has done.
5 And He raises up a testimony in Jacob, And has placed a law in Israel, That He commanded our fathers, To make them known to their sons.
6 So that a later generation knows, Sons who are born, rise and recount to their sons,
7 And place their confidence in God, And do not forget the doings of God, But keep His commands.
8 And they are not like their fathers, A generation apostatizing and being rebellious, A generation—it has not prepared its heart, Nor [is] its spirit steadfast with God.
9 Sons of Ephraim—armed bearers of bow, Have turned in a day of conflict.
10 They have not kept the covenant of God, And they have refused to walk in His law,
11 And they forget His doings, And His wonders that He showed them.
12 He has done wonders before their fathers, In the land of Egypt—the field of Zoan.
13 He cleft a sea, and causes them to pass over, Indeed, He causes waters to stand as a heap.
14 And leads them with a cloud by day, And with a light of fire all the night.
15 He cleaves rocks in a wilderness, And gives drink—as the great deep.
16 And brings out streams from a rock, And causes waters to come down as rivers.
17 And they still add to sin against Him, To provoke the Most High in the dry place.
18 And they try God in their heart, To ask food for their lust.
19 And they speak against God—they said: “Is God able to array a table in a wilderness?”
20 Behold, He has struck a rock, And waters flow, indeed, streams overflow. “Also, [is] He able to give bread? Does He prepare flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore YHWH has heard, And He shows Himself angry, And fire has been kindled against Jacob, And anger has also gone up against Israel,
22 For they have not believed in God, Nor have they trusted in His salvation.
23 And He commands clouds from above, Indeed, He has opened doors of the heavens.
24 And He rains manna on them to eat, Indeed, He has given grain of the heavens to them.
25 Each has eaten food of the mighty, He sent provision to them to satiety.
26 He causes an east wind to journey in the heavens, And leads a south wind by His strength,
27 And He rains on them flesh as dust, And as sand of the seas—winged bird,
28 And causes [it] to fall in the midst of His camp, Around His dwelling places.
29 And they eat, and are greatly satisfied, And He brings their desire to them.
30 They have not been estranged from their desire, Their food [is] yet in their mouth,
31 And the anger of God has gone up against them, And He slays among their fat ones, And He caused youths of Israel to bend.
32 With all this they have sinned again, And have not believed in His wonders.
33 And He consumes their days in vanity, And their years in trouble.
34 If He slew them, then they sought Him, And turned back, and earnestly sought God,
35 And they remember that God [is] their rock, And God Most High their redeemer.
36 And they deceive Him with their mouth, And lie to Him with their tongue,
37 And their heart has not been right with Him, And they have not been steadfast in His covenant.
38 And He, the Merciful One, pardons iniquity, and does not destroy, And has often turned back His anger, And does not awaken all His fury.
39 And He remembers that they [are] flesh, A wind going on—and it does not return.
40 How often do they provoke Him in the wilderness, Grieve Him in the desolate place?
41 Indeed, they turn back, and try God, And have limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They have not remembered His hand The day He ransomed them from the adversary.
43 When He set His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan,
44 And He turns their streams to blood, And they do not drink their floods.
45 He sends among them the beetle, and it consumes them, And the frog, and it destroys them,
46 And gives their increase to the caterpillar, And their labor to the locust.
47 He destroys their vine with hail, And their sycamores with frost,
48 And delivers their beasts up to the hail, And their livestock to the burning flames.
49 He sends on them the fury of His anger, Wrath, and indignation, and distress—A discharge of evil messengers.
50 He ponders a path for His anger, He did not keep back their soul from death, Indeed, He delivered up their life to the pestilence.
51 And He strikes every firstborn in Egypt, The first-fruit of the strong in tents of Ham.
52 And causes His people to journey as a flock, And guides them as a drove in a wilderness,
53 And He leads them confidently, And they have not been afraid, And the sea has covered their enemies.
54 And He brings them to the border of His sanctuary, This mountain His right hand had acquired,
55 And casts out nations from before them, And causes them to fall in the line of inheritance, And causes the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents,
56 And they tempt and provoke God Most High, And have not kept His testimonies.
57 And they turn back, And deal treacherously like their fathers, They have been turned like a deceitful bow,
58 And make Him angry with their high places, And make Him zealous with their carved images,
59 God has heard, and shows Himself angry. And kicks exceedingly against Israel.
60 And He leaves the Dwelling Place of Shiloh, The tent He had placed among men,
61 And He gives His strength to captivity, And His beauty into the hand of an adversary,
62 And delivers His people up to the sword, And showed Himself angry with His inheritance.
63 Fire has consumed His young men, And His virgins have not been praised.
64 His priests have fallen by the sword, And their widows do not weep.
65 And the Lord wakes as a sleeper, As a mighty one crying aloud from wine.
66 And He strikes His adversaries backward, He has put a continuous reproach on them,
67 And He kicks against the tent of Joseph, And has not fixed on the tribe of Ephraim.
68 And He chooses the tribe of Judah, With Mount Zion that He loved,
69 And builds His sanctuary as a high place, Like the earth, He founded it for all time.
70 And He fixes on His servant David, And takes him from the folds of a flock,
71 He has brought him in from behind suckling ones, To rule over Jacob His people, And over Israel His inheritance.
72 And he rules them according to the integrity of his heart, And leads them by the skillfulness of his hands!
