DBY Psalms 78 Chapter
78:1
{An instruction. Of Asaph.} Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,
78:3
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us:
78:4
We 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.
78:5
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;
78:6
That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children,
78:7
And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but observe his commandments;
78:8
And 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.
78:9
The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.
78:10
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
78:11
And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them.
78:12
In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
78:13
He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap;
78:14
And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire.
78:15
He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly;
78:16
And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
78:17
Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;
78:18
And they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;
78:19
And they spoke against God: they said, Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
78:20
Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?
78:21
Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:
78:22
Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;
78:23
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,
78:24
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.
78:25
Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.
78:26
He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;
78:27
And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,
78:28
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:
78:29
And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.
78:30
They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,
78:31
When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
78:32
For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works;
78:33
And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
78:34
When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after God;
78:35
And they remembered that God was their rock, and God, the Most High, their redeemer.
78:36
But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue;
78:37
For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
78:38
But 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:
78:39
And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.
78:40
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
78:41
And they turned again and tempted God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
78:42
They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor,
78:43
How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan;
78:44
And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink;
78:45
He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them;
78:46
And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust;
78:47
He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones;
78:48
And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
78:49
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, -- a mission of angels of woes.
78:50
He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
78:51
And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.
78:52
And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
78:53
And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
78:54
And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased;
78:55
And 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.
78:56
But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,
78:57
And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.
78:58
And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
78:59
God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
78:60
And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,
78:61
And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;
78:62
And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance:
78:63
The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song;
78:64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
78:65
Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine;
78:66
And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach.
78:67
And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
78:68
But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved;
78:69
And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.
78:70
And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
78:71
From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
78:72
And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.