78:1 {An instruction. Of Asaph.} Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,

78:3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us:

78:4 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.

78:5 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;

78:6 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,

78:7 And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of ∙God, but observe his commandments;

78:8 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 ∙God.

78:9 The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.

78:10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

78:11 And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them.

78:12 In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.

78:13 He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap;

78:14 And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire.

78:15 He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly;

78:16 And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

78:17 Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;

78:18 And they tempted ∙God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;

78:19 And they spoke against God: they said, Is ∙God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?

78:20 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?

78:21 Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:

78:22 Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;

78:23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,

78:24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.

78:25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.

78:26 He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;

78:27 And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,

78:28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:

78:29 And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.

78:30 They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,

78:31 When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

78:32 For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works;

78:33 And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

78:34 When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after ∙God;

78:35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and ∙God, the Most High, their redeemer.

78:36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue;

78:37 For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

78:38 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:

78:39 And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.

78:40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

78:41 And they turned again and tempted ∙God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel.

78:42 They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor,

78:43 How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan;

78:44 And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink;

78:45 He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them;

78:46 And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust;

78:47 He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones;

78:48 And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.

78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, -- a mission of angels of woes.

78:50 He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

78:51 And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.

78:52 And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

78:53 And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies.

78:54 And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased;

78:55 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.

78:56 But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,

78:57 And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.

78:58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

78:59 God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

78:60 And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,

78:61 And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;

78:62 And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance:

78:63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song;

78:64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

78:65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine;

78:66 And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach.

78:67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

78:68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved;

78:69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.

78:70 And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

78:71 From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.