Chapter 78

  Hear my law, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.  

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  I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,  

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  Which we have heard and known, Our fathers have told us.  

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  We 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.  

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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, even the children who should be born; Who should arise and tell their children,  

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  That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,  

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  And 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.  

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  The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.  

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  They didn't keep the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law.  

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  They forgot his doings, His wondrous works that he had showed them.  

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  Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.  

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

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  In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, All the night with a light of fire.  

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  He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.  

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

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  Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.  

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  They tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.  

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  Yes, they spoke against God. They said, 'Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?  

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  Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?'  

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  Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, Anger also went up against Israel,  

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  Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation.  

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  Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven.  

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  He rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from the sky.  

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  Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.  

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  He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.  

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  He rained also flesh on them as the dust; Winged birds as the sand of the seas.  

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  He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Around their habitations.  

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  So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.  

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  They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,  

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  When the anger of God went up against them, And killed some of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel.  

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  For all this they still sinned, And didn't believe in his wondrous works.  

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

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  When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.  

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  They remembered that God was their rock, The Most High God their redeemer.  

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  But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue.  

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  For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.  

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  But 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.  

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  He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.  

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  How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!  

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  They turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.  

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  They didn't remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;  

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  How he set his signs in Egypt, His wonders in the field of Zoan,  

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  Turned their rivers into blood, Their streams, so that they could not drink.  

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  He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; Frogs, which destroyed them.  

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  He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, Their labor to the locust.  

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  He destroyed their vines with hail, Their sycamore-fig trees with frost.  

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  He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.  

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  He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, And a band of angels of evil.  

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  He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,  

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  And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.  

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  But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.  

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  He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.  

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  He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had taken.  

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  He 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.  

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  Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And didn't keep his testimonies;  

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  But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.  

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  For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.  

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  When God heard this, he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel;  

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  So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;  

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  And delivered his strength into captivity, His glory into the adversary's hand.  

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  He also gave his people over to the sword, And was angry with his inheritance.  

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  Fire devoured their young men; Their virgins had no wedding song.  

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  Their priests fell by the sword; Their widows made no lamentation.  

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  Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.  

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  He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.  

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  Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, And didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,  

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  But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.  

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  He built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever.  

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  He also chose David his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds;  

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  From following the ewes that have their young he brought him To be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.  

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  So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Psalm 79 A Psalm by Asaph.  

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