Psalms 78 — ASV

Maschil of Asaph.

78Verse 1Give ear, O my people, to my law:
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
^{Verse 2}I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
^{Verse 3}Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
^{Verse 4}We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,
And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.
^{Verse 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;
^{Verse 6}That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born;
Who should arise and tell them to their children,
^{Verse 7}That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep his commandments,
^{Verse 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 stedfast with God.
^{Verse 9}The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
Turned back in the day of battle.
^{Verse 10}They kept not the covenant of God,
And refused to walk in his law;
^{Verse 11}And they forgat his doings,
And his wondrous works that he had showed them.
^{Verse 12}Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
^{Verse 13}He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through;
And he made the waters to stand as a heap.
^{Verse 14}In the day-time also he led them with a cloud,
And all the night with a light of fire.
^{Verse 15}He clave rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
^{Verse 16}He brought streams also out of the rock,
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
^{Verse 17}Yet went they on still to sin against him,
To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
^{Verse 18}And they tempted God in their heart
By asking food according to their desire.
^{Verse 19}Yea, they spake against God;
They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
^{Verse 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?
^{Verse 21}Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob,
And anger also went up against Israel;
^{Verse 22}Because they believed not in God,
And trusted not in his salvation.
^{Verse 23}Yet he commanded the skies above,
And opened the doors of heaven;
^{Verse 24}And he rained down manna upon them to eat,
And gave them food from heaven.
^{Verse 25}Man did eat the bread of the mighty:
He sent them food to the full.
^{Verse 26}He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens;
And by his power he guided the south wind.
^{Verse 27}He rained flesh also upon them as the dust,
And winged birds as the sand of the seas:
^{Verse 28}And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their habitations.
^{Verse 29}So they did eat, and were well filled;
And he gave them their own desire.
^{Verse 30}They were not estranged from that which they desired,
Their food was yet in their mouths,
^{Verse 31}When the anger of God went up against them,
And slew of the fattest of them,
And smote down the young men of Israel.
^{Verse 32}For all this they sinned still,
And believed not in his wondrous works.
^{Verse 33}Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,
And their years in terror.
^{Verse 34}When he slew them, then they inquired after him;
And they returned and sought God earnestly.
^{Verse 35}And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their redeemer.
^{Verse 36}But they flattered him with their mouth,
And lied unto him with their tongue.
^{Verse 37}For their heart was not right with him,
Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
^{Verse 38}But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:
Yea, many a time turned he his anger away,
And did not stir up all his wrath.
^{Verse 39}And he remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
^{Verse 40}How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness,
And grieve him in the desert!
^{Verse 41}And they turned again and tempted God,
And provoked the Holy One of Israel.
^{Verse 42}They remembered not his hand,
Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
^{Verse 43}How he set his signs in Egypt,
And his wonders in the field of Zoan,
^{Verse 44}And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
^{Verse 45}He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
And frogs, which destroyed them.
^{Verse 46}He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar,
And their labor unto the locust.
^{Verse 47}He destroyed their vines with hail,
And their sycomore-trees with frost.
^{Verse 48}He gave over their cattle also to the hail,
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
^{Verse 49}He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,
A band of angels of evil.
^{Verse 50}He made a path for his anger;
He spared not their soul from death,
But gave their life over to the pestilence,
^{Verse 51}And smote all the first-born in Egypt,
The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
^{Verse 52}But he led forth his own people like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
^{Verse 53}And he led them safely, so that they feared not;
But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
^{Verse 54}And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary,
To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.
^{Verse 55}He drove out the nations also before them,
And allotted them for an inheritance by line,
And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
^{Verse 56}Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
And kept not his testimonies;
^{Verse 57}But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers:
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
^{Verse 58}For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
^{Verse 59}When God heard this, he was wroth,
And greatly abhorred Israel;
^{Verse 60}So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
The tent which he placed among men;
^{Verse 61}And delivered his strength into captivity,
And his glory into the adversary’s hand.
^{Verse 62}He gave his people over also unto the sword,
And was wroth with his inheritance.
^{Verse 63}Fire devoured their young men;
And their virgins had no marriage-song.
^{Verse 64}Their priests fell by the sword;
And their widows made no lamentation.
^{Verse 65}Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
^{Verse 66}And he smote his adversaries backward:
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
^{Verse 67}Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
^{Verse 68}But chose the tribe of Judah,
The mount Zion which he loved.
^{Verse 69}And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which he hath established for ever.
^{Verse 70}He chose David also his servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds:
^{Verse 71}From following the ewes that have their young he brought him,
To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
^{Verse 72}So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.