Chapter 78
1 Hear my teaching , my people . Turn your ears to the words of my mouth .
2 I will open my mouth in a parable . I will utter dark sayings of old ,
3 which we have heard and known , and our fathers have told us .
4 We will not hide them from their children , telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD , his strength , and his wondrous deeds that he has done .
5 For he established a covenant in Jacob , and appointed a teaching in Israel , which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children ;
6 that the generation to come might know , even the children who should be born ; who should arise and tell their children ,
7 that they might set their hope in God , and not forget God ’s deeds , but keep his commandments ,
8 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 .
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows , turned back in the day of battle .
10 They didn’t keep God ’s covenant , and refused to walk in his law .
11 They forgot his doings , his wondrous deeds that he had shown them .
12 He did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt , in the field of Zoan .
13 He split the sea , and caused them to pass through . He made the waters stand as a heap .
14 In the daytime he also led them with a cloud , and all night with a light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness , and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths .
16 He brought streams also out of the rock , and caused waters to run down like rivers .
17 Yet they still went on to sin against him , to rebel against the Most High in the desert .
18 They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire .
19 Yes, they spoke against God. They said , " Can God prepare a table in the wilderness ?
20 Behold , he struck the rock , so that waters gushed out , and streams overflowed . Can he give bread also ? Will he provide meat for his people ?"
21 Therefore the LORD heard , and was angry . A fire was kindled against Jacob , anger also went up against Israel ,
22 because they didn’t believe in God , and didn’t trust in his salvation .
23 Yet he commanded the skies above , and opened the doors of heaven .
24 He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky .
25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full .
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky . By his power he guided the south wind .
27 He also rained meat on them as the dust , winged birds as the sand of the seas .
28 He let them fall in the middle of their camp , around their habitations .
29 So they ate, and were well filled . He gave them their own desire .
30 They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths ,
31 when the anger of God went up against them , killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel .
32 For all this they still sinned , and didn’t believe in his wondrous works .
33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity , and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them , then they enquired after him . They returned and sought God earnestly .
35 They remembered that God was their rock , the Most High God , their redeemer .
36 But they flattered him with their mouth , and lied to him with their tongue .
37 For their heart was not right with him , neither were they faithful in his covenant .
38 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 .
39 He remembered that they were but flesh , a wind that passes away , and doesn’t come again .
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness , and grieved him in the desert !
41 They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel .
42 They didn’t remember his hand , nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary ;
43 how he set his signs in Egypt , his wonders in the field of Zoan ,
44 he turned their rivers into blood , and their streams , so that they could not drink .
45 He sent amongst them swarms of flies , which devoured them ; and frogs , which destroyed them .
46 He also gave their increase to the caterpillar , and their labour to the locust .
47 He destroyed their vines with hail , their sycamore fig trees with frost .
48 He also gave over their livestock to the hail , and their flocks to hot thunderbolts .
49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger , wrath , indignation , and trouble , and a band of angels of evil .
50 He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death , but gave their life over to the pestilence ,
51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt , the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham .
52 But he led out his own people like sheep , and guided them in the wilderness like a flock .
53 He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid , but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary , to this mountain , which his right hand had taken.
55 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.
56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God , and didn’t keep his testimonies ,
57 but turned back , and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow .
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places , and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images .
59 When God heard this , he was angry , and greatly abhorred Israel ,
60 so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh , the tent which he placed amongst men,
61 and delivered his strength into captivity , his glory into the adversary ’s hand .
62 He also gave his people over to the sword , and was angry with his inheritance .
63 Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword , and their widows couldn’t weep .
65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep , like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine .
66 He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach .
67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph , and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah , Mount Zion which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights , like the earth which he has established forever .
70 He also chose David his servant , and took him from the sheepfolds ;
71 from following the ewes that have their young , he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob , his people , and Israel , his inheritance .
72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart , and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands .