| 78 |
Psalms - Revised Standard Version |
Hagiographa |
| Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
| National Lament over the destruction of Jerusalem. Psalm 78(v77)
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| I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
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| things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
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| We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD,
and his might, and the wonders which he has wrought.
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| He established a testimony in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children;
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| that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
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| so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
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| and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God. |
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| The E'phraimites, armed with the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
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| They did not keep God's covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
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| They forgot what he had done,
and the miracles that he had shown them.
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| In the sight of their fathers he wrought marvels
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zo'an.
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| He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
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| In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
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| He cleft rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
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| He made streams come out of the rock,
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
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| Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
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| They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
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| They spoke against God,
saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
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| He smote the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?"
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| Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel;
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| because they had no faith in God,
and did not trust his saving power.
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| Yet he commanded the skies above,
and opened the doors of heaven;
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| and he rained down upon them manna to eat,
and gave them the grain of heaven.
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| Man ate of the bread of the angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
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| He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
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| he rained flesh upon them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;
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| he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
all around their habitations.
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| And they ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.
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| But before they had sated their craving,
while the food was still in their mouths,
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| the anger of God rose against them and he slew the strongest of them,
and laid low the picked men of Israel.
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| In spite of all this they still sinned;
despite his wonders they did not believe.
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| So he made their days vanish like a breath,
and their years in terror.
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| When he slew them, they sought for him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
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| They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.
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| But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
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| Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not true to his covenant.
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| Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often, and did not stir up all his wrath.
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| He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
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| How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
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| They tested him again and again,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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| They did not keep in mind his power,
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
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| when he wrought his signs in Egypt,
and his miracles in the fields of Zo'an.
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| He turned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
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| He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
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| He gave their crops to the caterpillar,
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
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| He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamores with frost.
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| He gave over their cattle to the hail,
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
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| He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.
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| He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
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| He smote all the first-born in Egypt,
the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
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| Then he led forth his people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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| He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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| And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
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| He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
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| Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God,
and did not observe his testimonies,
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| but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.
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| For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
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| When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
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| He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among men,
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| and delivered his power to captivity,
his glory to the hand of the foe.
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| He gave his people over to the sword,
and vented his wrath on his heritage.
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| Fire devoured their young men,
and their maidens had no marriage song.
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| Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
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| Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
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| And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
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| He rejected the tent of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of E'phraim;
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| but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
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| He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded for ever.
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| He chose David his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds;
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| from tending the ewes that had young
he brought him to be the shepherd
of Jacob his people,
of Israel his inheritance.
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| With upright heart he tended them,
and guided them with skilful hand.
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