Psalms 106

1 Praise Yahweh! Praise Yahweh, because he does good things [for us]; he faithfully loves [us] forever/continually!

2 [Because Yahweh has done many great things], no one can [RHQ] tell all the great things that Yahweh has done, and no one can praise him enough/sufficiently.

3 (Happy are/He is pleased with) those who act fairly/justly, with those who always do what is right.

4 Yahweh, be kind to me when you help your people; help me when you rescue/save them.

5 Allow me to see it when your people become prosperous again and when [all the people of] your nation, [Israel], are happy; allow me to be happy with them! I want to praise you along with [all] those [others] who belong to you.

6 We and our ancestors have sinned; we have done things that were very wicked [DOU].

7 When our ancestors were in Egypt, they did not pay attention to the wonderful things that Yahweh did; they forgot about the many times that he showed that he faithfully loved them. Instead, when they were at the Red Sea, they rebelled against God, who is greater than any other god.

8 But he rescued them for the sake of his own [reputation] in order that he could show that he is very powerful.

9 He rebuked the Red Sea and it became dry, and [then] while he led our ancestors across it, they walked through it as though it were as dry as a desert [SIM].

10 In that way he rescued them from the power [MTY] of their enemies who hated them [DOU].

11 [Then] their enemies were drowned in the water [of the Red Sea]; not one of them was left.

12 When that happened, our ancestors believed [that Yahweh had truly done for them] what he had promised to do, and they sang to praise him.

13 But they soon forgot what he had done for them; they [did things] without waiting to find out what Yahweh wanted them to do.

14 They intensely wanted [food like they formerly ate in Egypt]. They [did evil things to] find out [if they could do those things without God punishing them].

15 [So] he gave them what they requested, but he [also] caused a terrible disease to afflict them.

16 [Later] when [some of] the men became jealous of Moses and [his older brother] Aaron, who was dedicated [to serve Yahweh by being a priest],

17 the ground opened up and swallowed Dathan and [also] buried Abiram and his family.

18 And [God sent] a fire down [from heaven] which burned up [all] the wicked [people who (supported them/agreed with) them].

19 Then the [Israeli leaders] made a gold statue at Sinai [Mountain] and worshiped it.

20 Instead of worshiping [our] glorious God, they [started to] worship a statue of a bull that eats grass!

21 They forgot about God, who had rescued them by the great miracles that he performed in Egypt.

22 They forgot about the wonderful things that he did for them in Egypt and the amazing/awesome things that he did for them at the Red Sea.

23 Because of that, God said that he would get rid of the Israelis, but Moses, whom God had chosen [to serve him], pleaded with God [not to get rid of them]. And as a result God did not destroy them.

24 [Later], our ancestors (refused/were afraid) to enter beautiful [Canaan] land because they did not believe [that God would enable them to take the land from the people who were living there, as] he had promised.

25 They stayed in their tents and grumbled and would not pay attention to what Yahweh said that they should do.

26 So he solemnly [MTY] told them that he would cause them to die [there] in the desert,

27 and that he would scatter their descendants among the [people of other] nations/people-groups [who did not believe in him], and that he would allow them to die in those lands.

28 Later the Israeli people [started to] worship [the idol of] Baal [who they thought lived] at Peor [Mountain], and they ate [meat that had been] sacrificed to [Baal and those other] lifeless gods.

29 Yahweh became [very] angry because of what they had done, [so again] he sent a terrible disease to attack/strike them.

30 But Phinehas stood up and punished/killed [the ones who had sinned greatly], and as a result the (plague/serious disease) ended.

31 People have remembered that righteous thing that Phinehas did, and in future years people will remember it.

32 [Then] at Meribah Springs our ancestors caused Yahweh to become angry, and as a result Moses had trouble.

33 They caused Moses to become very angry [IDM], and he said things that were foolish.

34 Our ancestors did not destroy the people [who did not believe in Yahweh] like he told them to do.

35 Instead, they mingled with people from those people-groups, and they started to do the evil things that those people did.

36 Our ancestors worshiped the idols of those people, which resulted in their being destroyed/exiled/taken to another country [MET].

37 [Some of] the Israelis sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons [that those idols represented].

38 They killed [MTY] their own children, who (were innocent/had not done things that were wrong), and offered them as sacrifices to the idols in Canaan. [As a result], Canaan land was polluted by those murders [MTY].

39 So by their deeds they caused themselves to become unacceptable to God; [because they did not faithfully worship only God], [they became like] women who sleep with other men [instead of sleeping only with their husbands] [MET].

40 So Yahweh became very angry with his people; he was completely disgusted with them.

41 [As a result] he allowed people-groups [who did not believe in him] to conquer them, so those who hated our ancestors started to rule over them.

42 Their enemies (oppressed them/treated them cruelly) and completely controlled them [MET].

43 Many times Yahweh rescued them, but they continued to rebel against him, and they were finally destroyed because of the sins that they committed.

44 However, Yahweh [always] heard them when they cried out to him; he listened to them when they were distressed.

45 For their sake, he thought about the agreement/promise that he had made [to bless] them, and because he never stopped loving them very much, he changed his mind [about punishing them more].

46 He caused all those who had taken the Israelis [to Babylonia] to (feel sorry for/pity) them.

47 Yahweh our God, rescue/save us and bring us back [to Israel] from among those people-groups in order that we may thank you [MTY] and joyfully praise you.

48 Praise Yahweh, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], praise him now and forever! And I want everyone to say, “Amen/May it be so!” Praise Yahweh!