78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will speak dark sayings 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 children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done, |
78:5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children; |
78:6 So that the generation to come might know them, children which shall be born; and they shall arise and tell them to their children, |
78:7 So that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments; |
78:8 And might not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God. |
78:9 The children of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle. |
78:10 They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law. |
78:11 And they forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them. |
78:12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. |
78:13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand in a heap. |
78:14 And in the daytime He led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire. |
78:15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink, as from the great depths. |
78:16 He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. |
78:17 Yet they continued to sin still more against Him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. |
78:18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking food for their lust. |
78:19 Yea, they spoke against God; they said, "Can God set a table in the wilderness? |
78:20 Behold, He struck the rock so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed! Can He also give bread? Can He provide flesh for His people?" |
78:21 Therefore the LORD heard and was furious; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel |
78:22 Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation, |
78:23 Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven; |
78:24 And He had rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the grain of heaven. |
78:25 Man ate the food of angels; He sent them meat to the full. |
78:26 He caused an east wind to blow in heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind. |
78:27 And He also rained flesh upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea; |
78:28 And He let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their tents. |
78:29 So they ate and were filled to the full, for He gave them that which they craved. |
78:30 They were not turned away from their lust, but while their food was still in their mouths, |
78:31 The wrath of God came upon them and killed the strongest of them, and struck down the chosen men of Israel. |
78:32 For all this they still sinned and did not believe in His wonderful works. |
78:33 Therefore He ended their days in vanity and their years in terror. |
78:34 When He slew them, then they sought Him; and they turned back and sought after God earnestly. |
78:35 And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God was their Redeemer. |
78:36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths, and they lied to Him with their tongues, |
78:37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him; neither were they faithful in His covenant. |
78:38 But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; yea, many times He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath, |
78:39 For He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again. |
78:40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness and grieve Him in the desert! |
78:41 And still again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. |
78:42 They did not remember His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy; |
78:43 How He had wrought His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan. |
78:44 He turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink from their streams. |
78:45 He sent different kinds of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. |
78:46 He also gave their crops to the stripping caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. |
78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with sleet. |
78:48 He gave up their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire. |
78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath and fury and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. |
78:50 He leveled a path for His anger; He did not save their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague, |
78:51 And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham; |
78:52 But 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 on safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. |
78:54 And He brought them to the border of His holy land, to this mountain, which His right hand had bought. |
78:55 He also drove out the nations before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. |
78:56 Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies; |
78:57 But they turned back and dealt treacherously like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceiving bow, |
78:58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images. |
78:59 When God heard, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel; |
78:60 So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, |
78:61 And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hands. |
78:62 He also gave His people over to the sword, and vented His wrath upon His inheritance. |
78:63 The fire devoured their young men; and their maidens were not given in marriage. |
78:64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows were not able to make a lamentation. |
78:65 Then the LORD awakened like one out of sleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine. |
78:66 And He drove His enemies backward; He put them to perpetual reproach. |
78:67 And He rejected the tabernacle 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 holy sanctuary like the heights of heaven, like the earth which He has founded forever. |
78:70 He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; |
78:71 From following the ewes great with young, He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. |
78:72 And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. |