Psalmen 78

¹Hear my law, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
²I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
³Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.
⁴We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, His strength, and his wondrous works that he has 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, even the children who should be born; Who should arise and tell their children,
⁷That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,
⁸And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, Whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
¹⁰They didn't keep God's covenant, And refused to walk in his law.
¹¹They forgot his doings, His wondrous works that he had shown them.
¹²He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
¹³He split the sea, and caused them to pass through; He made the waters stand as a heap.
¹⁴In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, And all night with a light of fire.
¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.
¹⁷Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸They tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.
¹⁹Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
²⁰Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"
²¹Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, Anger also went up against Israel,
²²Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation.
²³Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven.
²⁴He rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from the sky.
²⁵Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.
²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
²⁷He rained also flesh on them as the dust; Winged birds as the sand of the seas.
²⁸He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Around their habitations.
²⁹So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
³⁰They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,
³¹When the anger of God went up against them, Killed some of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel.
³²For all this they still sinned, And didn't believe in his wondrous works.
³³Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror.
³⁴When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, The Most High God their redeemer.
³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue.
³⁷For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, And didn't stir up all his wrath.
³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.
⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, And grieved him in the desert!
⁴¹They turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴²They didn't remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
⁴³How he set his signs in Egypt, His wonders in the field of Zoan,
⁴⁴Turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.
⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.
⁴⁶He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, And their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, Their sycamore-fig trees with frost.
⁴⁸He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
⁴⁹He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, And a band of angels of evil.
⁵⁰He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,
⁵¹And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
⁵⁵He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And didn't keep his testimonies;
⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
⁵⁹When God heard this, he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel;
⁶⁰So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;
⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, His glory into the adversary's hand.
⁶²He also gave his people over to the sword, And was angry with his inheritance.
⁶³Fire devoured their young men; Their virgins had no wedding song.
⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword, And their widows couldn't weep.
⁶⁵Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
⁶⁶He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
⁶⁷Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, And didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,
⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever.
⁷⁰He also chose David his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹From following the ewes that have their young, He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, And Israel, his inheritance.
⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

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