PSALM 78

A lesson of Instruction [of] Asaph

1 Give ear, O my people! to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my month.

2 I will open in a parable my mouth; I will utter enigmas from ancient Sae.

3 What we have heard and known, And our’ fathers have related to us,

4 We will not conceal from their children to the generation to come, Recounting the praises of Jehovah and his might, And the wonders which he hath done.

5 And he established a testimony in, Jacob, And a law he appointed in Israel; For he commanded our fathers To make them known to their children;

6 That the generations to come might know them, That the children to be born might arise, And declare them to their children.

7 That they might set in God their hope, And not forget the works of God; But that his commandments they might observe,

8 And not be as their fathers, A generation rebellious and provoking; A generation which set not their heart might, And whose spirit was not faithful towards God.

9 The children of Ephraim, armed [and] shooting with the bow, Were turned back in the day of battle.

10 They kept not the covenant of God, And in his law they refused to walk.

11 And they forget his works, And the wonders which he had shown them.

12 In the sight of their fathers he wrought marvelously; In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through, And made the waters to stand as an heap.

14 And he led them by a cloud in the day; And all the night by the light of fire.

15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, And made them to drink in great deeps.

16 And he brought forth streams from the rock, And made the waters to descend like rivers.

17 Yet they continued still to sin against him, To provoke the Most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart, By asking food for their soul.

19 And they spake against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?”

20 Behold! he smote the reek, and gush out did the waters; And rivers overflowed. “Can he give bread also? “Will he prepare flesh for his people?”

21 Therefore Jehovah heard and was wroth: And a fire was kindled in Jacob: And wrath also ascended against Israel;

22 Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation.

23 But he had commanded the clouds from above, And the doors of heaven he had opened,

24 And had rained down upon them manna for food, And the corn of heaven he had given them:

25 The bread of the mighty ones man had eaten: Meat he had sent them to the full.

26 He caused to blow an east wind in the heavens; And he raised up by his power the south wind.

27 And he rained upon them flesh as dust, And as the sand of the sea leathered fowl;

28 And he caused it to fall in the midst of his camp, Round about his tabernacles.

29 And they did eat and were filled exceedingly, And their desire he brought to them.

30 They were not estranged from their desire: The meat was still in their mouth,

31 When the wrath of God ascended against them, And slew their fat ones, And brought low the chosen of Israel.

32 In all these things they sinned still, And believed not his wonders.

33 And he consumed in vanity their days, And their years in haste.

34 When he slew them, they sought him; They returned, and hastened early to God.

35 And they remembered that God was their Rock, And that the Most High God was their Redeemer.

36 And they flattered [him] with their mouth, And with their tongue they lied to him:

37 But their heart was not right before him, And they were not faithful in his covenant.

38 Yet he who is compassionate expiated their iniquity, And did not destroy them: And he multiplied to turn away his anger, And did not stir up all his indignation.

39 And he remembered that they were flesh; A breath that passeth, and returneth not.

40 How often did they provoke him in the desert, [And] grieve him in the wilderness!

41 And they returned and tempted God, And the Holy One of Israel they limited.

42 They remembered not his hand In the day that he redeemed them from the oppressor,

43 When he set in Egypt his signs, And his miracles in the field of Zoan.

44 When he turned into blood their rivers; And their streams, that they might not drink of them.

45 He sent among them a mixture which devoured them; And the frog which destroyed them.

46 And he gave to the caterpillar their fruit; And their labors to the locusts. ³⁴⁸³⁴⁸     In the French version it is “to the grasshopper.”

47 And he destroyed with hail their vine, And their wild fig-trees with hailstones.

48 And he gave lip to the hail their cattle, And their flocks to thunderbolts.

49 He sent upon them the fierceness of his wrath, Fury, anger, and affliction, A mission of evil angels.

50 He made a path for his anger: He kept not from death their soul, And their cattle to the pestilence he shut up.

51 And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt: The beginning of [their] strength in the tents of Ham.

52 And he made to go forth like sheep his people, And led them like a flock in the wilderness.

53 And he conducted them in safety, and they were not afraid: And their enemies cover did the sea.

54 And he brought them to the border of his holiness, This mountain, which his right hand acquired.

55 And he expelled from before their face the heathen; And made them to fall into the lot of all inheritance; And caused to dwell in their tents the children of Israel.

56 But they tempted and provoked God Most High, And his testimonies they kept not.

57 And they turned back and dealt perfidiously like their fathers: They started aside like a bow that is deceitful.

58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places; And with their graven images they moved him to anger.

59 Hear it did God, and was wroth, And he abhorred exceedingly Israel.

60 And he forsook the habitation of Shiloh, The tabernacle where he dwelt among men.

61 And he gave into captivity his strength, And his beauty into the hand of the enemy.

62 And he shut up to the sword his people, And with his own inheritance was wroth.

63 Their chosen devour did the fire, And their virgins were not applauded.

64 Their priests by the sword did fall; And their widows made no lamentation.

65 But the Lord awoke as one asleep, As a mighty man who crieth out by reason of wine.

66 And he smote his enemies behind; Everlasting disgrace he put upon them.

67 And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, And the tribe of Ephraim he chose not:

68 But he chose the tribe of Judah, The mountain of Zion, which he loved:

69 And built like high places his sanctuary, Like the earth which he hath founded for ever.

70 And he chose David his servant, And took him from the folds of sheep:

71 From following the suckling ewes he took him, To feed Jacob his people, And Israel his inheritance:

72 And he fed them in the integrity of his heart, And by the prudence of his hands he guided there.