Psalms 78:1
Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
Psalms 78:2
I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter dark sayings of old,
Psalms 78:3
which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
Psalms 78:4
We will not hide them from their sons, telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.
Psalms 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 sons,
Psalms 78:6
that the generation to come might know, even the sons who should be born, who should arise and tell to their sons,
Psalms 78:7
that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,
Psalms 78:8
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 steadfast with God.
Psalms 78:9
The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Psalms 78:10
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law.
Psalms 78:11
And they forgot his doings, and his wondrous works that he had shown them.
Psalms 78:12
He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Psalms 78:13
He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through. And he made the waters to stand as a heap.
Psalms 78:14
In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
Psalms 78:15
He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
Psalms 78:16
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
Psalms 78:17
Yet they went on to still sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
Psalms 78:18
And they challenged God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
Psalms 78:19
Yea, they spoke against God. They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Psalms 78:20
Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?
Psalms 78:21
Therefore Jehovah heard, and was angry. And a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel,
Psalms 78:22
because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.
Psalms 78:23
Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven,
Psalms 78:24
and he rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them food from heaven.
Psalms 78:25
Man ate the bread of the mighty. He sent them food to the full.
Psalms 78:26
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he guided the south wind.
Psalms 78:27
He also rained flesh upon them as the dust, and winged birds as the sand of the seas.
Psalms 78:28
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habitations.
Psalms 78:29
So they ate, and were well filled, and he gave them their own desire.
Psalms 78:30
They were not estranged from that which they desired. Their food was yet in their mouths
Psalms 78:31
when the anger of God went up against them, and killed of the fattest of them, and smote down the young men of Israel.
Psalms 78:32
For all this they still sinned, and did not believe in his wondrous works.
Psalms 78:33
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
Psalms 78:34
When he killed them, then they inquired after him, and they returned and sought God earnestly.
Psalms 78:35
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
Psalms 78:36
But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
Psalms 78:37
For their heart was not right with him, nor were they faithful in his covenant.
Psalms 78:38
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and destroyed not. Yea, many a time he turned his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
Psalms 78:39
And he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and comes not again.
Psalms 78:40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
Psalms 78:41
And they turned again and challenged God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 78:42
They did not remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary,
Psalms 78:43
how he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan,
Psalms 78:44
and turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
Psalms 78:45
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
Psalms 78:46
He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
Psalms 78:47
He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
Psalms 78:48
He also gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
Psalms 78:49
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a band of agents of evil.
Psalms 78:50
He made a path for his anger. He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
Psalms 78:51
and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
Psalms 78:52
But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
Psalms 78:53
And he led them safely, so that they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Psalms 78:54
And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.
Psalms 78:55
He also 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.
Psalms 78:56
Yet they challenged and rebelled against the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies,
Psalms 78:57
but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
Psalms 78:58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
Psalms 78:59
When God heard, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel,
Psalms 78:60
so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,
Psalms 78:61
and delivered their strength into captivity, and their glory into the adversary's hand.
Psalms 78:62
He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
Psalms 78:63
Fire devoured their young men, and their virgins had no marriage-song.
Psalms 78:64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Psalms 78:65
Then the Lord awoke as out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.
Psalms 78:66
And he smote his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Psalms 78:67
Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
Psalms 78:68
but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
Psalms 78:69
And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
Psalms 78:70
He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
Psalms 78:71
He brought him from following the ewes that have their young, to be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
Psalms 78:72
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.