Psalms 78
78
Psalm 78
A maskil by Asaph.
1Open your ears to my teachings, my people.
Turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2I will open my mouth to illustrate points.
I will explain what has been hidden long ago,
3things that we have heard and known about,
things that our parents have told us.
4We will not hide them from our children.
We will tell the next generation
about the Lord’s power and great deeds
and the miraculous things he has done.
5He established written instructions for Jacob’s people.
He gave his teachings to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children
6so that the next generation would know them.
Children yet to be born ⌞would learn them⌟.
They will grow up and tell their children
7to trust God, to remember what he has done,
and to obey his commands.
8Then they will not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation.
Their hearts were not loyal.
Their spirits were not faithful to God.
9The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows ⌞and arrows⌟,
turned ⌞and ran⌟ on the day of battle.
10They had not been faithful to God’s promise.#78:10 Or “covenant.”
They refused to follow his teachings.
11They forgot what he had done—
the miracles that he had shown them.
12In front of their ancestors he performed miracles
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13He divided the sea and led them through it.
He made the waters stand up like a wall.
14He guided them by a cloud during the day
and by a fiery light throughout the night.
15He split rocks in the desert.
He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water.
16He made streams come out of a rock.
He made the water flow like rivers.
17They continued to sin against him,
to rebel in the desert against the Most High.
18They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved.
19They spoke against God by saying,
“Can God prepare a banquet in the desert?
20True, he did strike a rock,
and water did gush out,
and the streams did overflow.
But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?”
21When the Lord heard this, he became furious.
His fire burned against Jacob
and his anger flared up at Israel
22because they did not believe God
or trust him to save them.
23In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24He rained manna down on them to eat
and gave them grain from heaven.
25Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones,
and God sent them plenty of food.
26He made the east wind blow in the heavens
and guided the south wind with his might.
27He rained meat down on them like dust,
birds like the sand on the seashore.
28He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp,
all around his dwelling place.
29They ate more than enough.
He gave them what they wanted,
30but they still wanted more.
While the food was still in their mouths,
31the anger of God flared up against them.
He killed their strongest men and slaughtered the best young men in Israel.
32In spite of all this, they continued to sin,
and they no longer believed in his miracles.
33He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind.
He brought their years to an end in terror.
34When he killed ⌞some of⌟ them, ⌞the rest⌟ searched for him.
They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God.
35They remembered that God was their rock,
that the Most High was their defender.
36They flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues.
37Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They were not faithful to his promise.
38But he is compassionate.
He forgave their sin.
He did not destroy them.
He restrained his anger many times.
He did not display all of his fury.
39He remembered that they were only flesh and blood,
a breeze that blows and does not return.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they caused him grief in the desert!
41Again and again they tested God,
and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit.
42They did not remember his power—
the day he freed them from their oppressor,
43when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44He turned their rivers into blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45He sent a swarm of flies that bit them
and frogs that ruined them.
46He gave their crops to grasshoppers
and their produce to locusts.
47He killed their vines with hail
and their fig trees with frost.
48He let the hail strike their cattle
and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
49He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them.
He sent an army of destroying angels.
50He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them.
He let the plague take their lives.
51He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt,
the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.
52But he led his own people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
53He led them safely.
They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
54He brought them into his holy land,
to this mountain that his power had won.
55He forced nations out of their way
and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
56They tested God Most High and rebelled against him.
They did not obey his written instructions.
57They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors.
They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
58They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites.
They made him furious because they worshiped idols.
59When God heard, he became furious.
He completely rejected Israel.
60He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among humans.
61He allowed his power to be taken captive
and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
62He let swords kill his people.
He was furious with those who belonged to him.
63Fire consumed his best young men,
so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
64His priests were cut down with swords.
The widows ⌞of his priests⌟ could not even weep ⌞for them⌟.
65Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping,
like a warrior sobering up from ⌞too much⌟ wine.
66He struck his enemies from behind
and disgraced them forever.
67He rejected the tent of Joseph.
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
69He built his holy place to be like the high heavens,
like the earth which he made to last for a long time.
70He chose his servant David.
He took him from the sheep pens.
71He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs
so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob,
of Israel, the people who belonged to the Lord.
72With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd.
With skill he guided them.
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Psalms 78: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Psalms 78
78
PSALM 78
An instruction. Of Asaph.
1Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old, 3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us: 4We will not hide them from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done. 5For 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; 6That the generation to come might know them, the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell them to their children, 7And that they might set their hope in God#GodHebrew: Elohim and not forget the works of ·God#GodHebrew: El but observe his commandments; 8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with ·God#GodHebrew: El
9The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle. 10They kept not the covenant of God#GodHebrew: Elohim and refused to walk in his law; 11And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them. 12In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan. 13He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap; 14And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire. 15He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the depths, abundantly; 16And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. 17Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert; 18And they tempted ·God#GodHebrew: El in their heart, by asking meat for their lust; 19And they spoke against God#GodHebrew: Elohim they said, Is ·God#GodHebrew: El able to prepare a table in the wilderness? 20Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people? 21Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel: 22Because they believed not in God#GodHebrew: Elohim and confided not in his salvation; 23Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens, 24And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens. 25Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full. 26He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind; 27And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas, 28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations: 29And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them. 30They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths, 31When the anger of God#GodHebrew: Elohim went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. 32For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works; 33And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. 34When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after ·God#GodHebrew: El 35And they remembered that God#GodHebrew: Elohim was their rock, and ·God#GodHebrew: El the Most High, their redeemer. 36But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue; 37For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 38But he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed them not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury: 39And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.
40How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41And they turned again and tempted ·God#GodHebrew: El and grieved the Holy One of Israel. 42They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor, 43How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan; 44And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink; 45He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them; 46And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust; 47He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones; 48And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts. 49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, — a mission of angels of woes. 50He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; 51And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham. 52And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock; 53And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies. 54And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased; 55And he drove out the nations before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 56But they tempted and provoked God#GodHebrew: Elohim the Most High, and kept not his testimonies, 57And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow. 58And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: 60And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men, 61And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor; 62And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance: 63The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in nuptial song; 64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. 65Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine; 66And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach. 67And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, 68But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved; 69And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever. 70And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: 71From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 72And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.