Chapter 78

  {An instruction. Of Asaph.} Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  

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  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,  

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  Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us:  

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  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.  

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  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;  

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  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,  

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  And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of ùGod, but observe his commandments;  

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  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 ùGod.  

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  The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.  

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  They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;  

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  And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them.  

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  In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.  

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  He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap;  

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  And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire.  

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  He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly;  

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  And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.  

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  Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;  

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  And they tempted ùGod in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;  

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  And they spoke against God: they said, Is ùGod able to prepare a table in the wilderness?  

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  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?  

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  Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:  

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  Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;  

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  Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,  

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  And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.  

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  Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.  

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  He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;  

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  And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,  

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  And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:  

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  And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.  

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  They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,  

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  When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.  

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  For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works;  

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  And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.  

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  When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after ùGod;  

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  And they remembered that God was their rock, and ùGod, the Most High, their redeemer.  

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  But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue;  

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  For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.  

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  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:  

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  And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.  

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  How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!  

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  And they turned again and tempted ùGod, and grieved the Holy One of Israel.  

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  They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor,  

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  How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan;  

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  And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink;  

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  He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them;  

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  And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust;  

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  He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones;  

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  And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.  

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  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, -- a mission of angels of woes.  

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  He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;  

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  And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.  

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  And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;  

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  And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies.  

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  And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased;  

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  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.  

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  But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,  

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  And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.  

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  And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.  

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  God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:  

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  And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,  

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  And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;  

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  And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance:  

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  The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song;  

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  Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.  

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  Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine;  

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  And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach.  

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  And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,  

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  But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved;  

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  And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.  

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  And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:  

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  From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.  

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  And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.  

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