psalms78
- 1Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
- 2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
- 3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
- 4We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
- 5For 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:
- 6That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
- 7That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
- 8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
- 9The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
- 10They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
- 11And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
- 12Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
- 13He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
- 14In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
- 15He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
- 16He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
- 17And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
- 18And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
- 19Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
- 20Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
- 21Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
- 22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
- 23Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
- 24And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
- 25Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
- 26He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
- 27He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
- 28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
- 29So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
- 30They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
- 31The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
- 32For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
- 33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
- 34When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
- 35And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
- 36Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
- 37For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
- 38But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
- 39For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
- 40How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
- 41Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
- 42They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
- 43How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
- 44And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
- 45He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
- 46He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
- 47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
- 48He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
- 49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
- 50He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
- 51And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
- 52But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
- 53And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
- 54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
- 55He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- 56Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
- 57But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
- 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
- 59When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
- 60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
- 61And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
- 62He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
- 63The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
- 64Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
- 65Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
- 66And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
- 67Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
- 68But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
- 69And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
- 70He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
- 71From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
- 72So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
