78:1  

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.