Psalms - Chapter 78

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¹ [Psalm Of Asaph] My people, listen to my teaching, pay attention to what I say.

² I will speak to you in poetry, unfold the mysteries of the past.

³ What we have heard and know, what our ancestors have told us

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⁴ we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yahweh, his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.

⁵ He instituted a witness in Jacob, he established a law in Israel, he commanded our ancestors to hand it down to their descendants,

⁶ that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,

⁷ and should put their trust in God, never forgetting God's great deeds, always keeping his commands,

⁸ and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.

⁹ The archer sons of Ephraim turned tail when the time came for fighting;

¹⁰ they failed to keep God's covenant, they refused to follow his Law;

¹¹ they had forgotten his great deeds, the marvels he had shown them;

¹² he did marvels in the sight of their ancestors in Egypt, in the plains of Tanis.

¹³ He split the sea and brought them through, made the waters stand up like a dam;

¹⁴ he led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with the light of a fire;

¹⁵ he split rocks in the desert, let them drink as though from the limitless depths;

¹⁶ he brought forth streams from a rock, made waters flow down in torrents.

¹⁷ But they only sinned against him more than ever, defying the Most High in barren country;

¹⁸ they deliberately challenged God by demanding food to their hearts' content.

¹⁹ They insulted God by saying, 'Can God make a banquet in the desert?

²⁰ True, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out and flowed in torrents; but what of bread? Can he give that, can he provide meat for his people?'

²¹ When he heard them Yahweh vented his anger, fire blazed against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,

²² because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.

²³ Even so he gave orders to the skies above, he opened the sluice-gates of heaven;

²⁴ he rained down manna to feed them, he gave them the wheat of heaven;

²⁵ mere mortals ate the bread of the Mighty, he sent them as much food as they could want.

²⁶ He roused an east wind in the heavens, despatched a south wind by his strength;

²⁷ he rained down meat on them like dust, birds thick as sand on the seashore,

²⁸ tumbling into the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling-place.

²⁹ They ate as much food as they wanted, he satisfied all their cravings;

³⁰ but their cravings were still upon them, the food was still in their mouths,

³¹ when the wrath of God attacked them, slaughtering their strongest men, laying low the flower of Israel.

³² Despite all this, they went on sinning, they put no faith in his marvels.

³³ He made their days vanish in mist, their years in sudden ruin.

³⁴ Whenever he slaughtered them, they began to seek him, they turned back and looked eagerly for him,

³⁵ recalling that God was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer.

³⁶ They tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him;

³⁷ their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸ But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath,

³⁹ remembering they were creatures of flesh, a breath of wind that passes, never to return.

⁴⁰ How often they defied him in the desert! How often they grieved him in the wastelands!

⁴¹ Repeatedly they challenged God, provoking the Holy One of Israel,

⁴² not remembering his hand, the time when he saved them from the oppressor,

⁴³ he who did his signs in Egypt, his miracles in the plains of Tanis,

⁴⁴ turning their rivers to blood, their streams so that they had nothing to drink.

⁴⁵ He sent horseflies to eat them up, and frogs to devastate them,

⁴⁶ consigning their crops to the caterpillar, the fruit of their hard work to the locust;

⁴⁷ he killed their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost,

⁴⁸ delivering up their cattle to hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He loosed against them the full heat of his anger, fury, rage and destruction, a detachment of destroying angels;

⁵⁰ he gave free course to his anger. He did not exempt their own selves from death, delivering up their lives to the plague.

⁵¹ He struck all the first-born in Egypt, the flower of the youth in the tents of Ham.

⁵² He brought out his people like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert,

⁵³ leading them safe and unafraid, while the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴ He brought them to his holy land, the hill-country won by his right hand;

⁵⁵ he dispossessed nations before them, measured out a heritage for each of them, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ But still they challenged the Most High God and defied him, refusing to keep his decrees;

⁵⁷ as perverse and treacherous as their ancestors, they gave way like a faulty bow,

⁵⁸ provoking him with their high places, rousing his jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹ God listened and vented his wrath, he totally rejected Israel;

⁶⁰ he forsook his dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he used to dwell on the earth.

⁶¹ He abandoned his power to captivity, his splendour to the enemy's clutches;

⁶² he gave up his people to the sword, he vented his wrath on his own heritage.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men, their young girls had no wedding-song;

⁶⁴ their priests fell by the sword and their widows sang no dirge.

⁶⁵ The Lord arose as though he had been asleep, like a strong man fighting-mad with wine,

⁶⁶ he struck his enemies on the rump, and put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷ Rejecting the tents of Joseph, passing over the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ he chose the tribe of Judah, his well-loved mountain of Zion;

⁶⁹ he built his sanctuary like high hills, like the earth set it firm for ever.

⁷⁰ He chose David to be his servant, took him from the sheepfold,

⁷¹ took him from tending ewes to pasture his servant Jacob, and Israel his heritage.

⁷² He pastured them with unblemished heart, with a sensitive hand he led them.