Psalms
Chapter 78
1 Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark
sayings concerning days of old;
3 That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have
told us,
4 We will not hide from their children, telling to the
generation to come the praises of HaShem, and His strength, and His wondrous
works that He hath done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a
law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known
to their children;
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the
children that should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children,
7 That they might put their confidence in G-d, and not forget
the works of G-d, but keep His commandments;
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and
rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose
spirit was not stedfast with G-d.
9 The children of Ephraim were as archers handling the bow,
that turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of G-d, and refused to walk in
His law;
11 And they forgot His doings, and His wondrous works that He
had shown them.
12 Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in
the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He cleaved the sea, and caused them to pass through; and
He made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 By day also He led them with a cloud, and all the night
with a light of fire.
15 He cleaved rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink
abundantly as out of the great deep.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters
to run down like rivers.
17 Yet went they on still to sin against Him, to rebel
against the Most High in the desert.
18 And they tried G-d in their heart by asking food for their
craving.
19 Yea, they spoke against G-d; they said: 'Can G-d prepare a
table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and
streams overflowed; can He give bread also? or will He provide flesh for His
people?'
21 Therefore HaShem heard, and was wroth; and a fire was
kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in G-d, and trusted not in His
salvation.
23 And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of
heaven;
24 And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave
them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty; He sent them
provisions to the full.
26 He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven; and by His
power He brought on the south wind.
27 He caused flesh also to rain upon them as the dust, and
winged fowl as the sand of the seas;
28 And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about
their dwellings.
29 So they did eat, and were well filled; and He gave them
that which they craved.
30 They were not estranged from their craving, their food was
yet in their mouths,
31 When the anger of G-d went up against them, and slew of
the lustieth among them, and smote down the young men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His
wondrous works.
33 Therefore He ended their days as a breath, and their years
in terror.
34 When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and
turn back and seek G-d earnestly.
35 And they remembered that G-d was their Rock, and the Most
High G-d their redeemer.
36 But they beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him
with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not stedfast with Him, neither were
they faithful in His covenant.
38 But He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity, and
destroyeth not; yea, many a time doth He turn His anger away, and doth not stir
up all His wrath.
39 So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that
passeth away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they rebel against Him in the wilderness, and
grieve Him in the desert!
41 And still again they tried G-d, and set bounds to the Holy
One of Israel.
42 They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He redeemed
them from the adversary.
43 How He set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the
field of Zoan;
44 And turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not
drink their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and
their labour unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their
sycamore-trees with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their
flocks to fiery bolts.
49 He sent forth upon them the fierceness of His anger,
wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a sending of messengers of evil.
50 He levelled a path for His anger; He spared not their soul
from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 And smote all the first-born in Egypt, the first-fruits of
their strength in the tents of Ham;
52 But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and
guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And He led them safely, and they feared not; but the sea
overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain,
which His right hand had gotten.
55 He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted
them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their
tents.
56 Yet they tried and provoked G-d, the Most High, and kept
not His testimonies;
57 But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their
fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked Him with their high places, and moved
Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 G-d heard, and was wroth, and He greatly abhorred Israel;
60 And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He
had made to dwell among men;
61 And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory
into the adversary's hand.
62 He gave His people over also unto the sword; and was wroth
with His inheritance.
63 Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins had no
marriage-song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no
lamentation.
65 Then the L-rd awaked as one asleep, like a mighty man
recovering from wine.
66 And He smote His adversaries backward; He put upon them a
perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the
tribe of Ephraim;
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He
loved.
69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the
earth which He hath founded for ever.
70 He chose David also His servant, and took him from the
sheepfolds;
71 From following the ewes that give suck He brought him, to
be shepherd over Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his
heart; and lead them by the skilfulness of his hands.
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