Psalm 78

Modern

Literal

I Will Open My Mouth in Parables

¹A Maskil^a of Asaph.

Give ear, O my people, to my instruction;

listen to the words of my mouth.

¹A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; stretch out your ear to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in parables;

I will utter things hidden from the beginning,^a

²I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour forth things hidden from of old,

³that we have heard and known

and our fathers have relayed to us.

³which we have heard and known, and our fathers have recounted to us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children

but will declare to the next generation

the praises of the LORD and His might

and the wonders He has performed.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, recounting to a following generation: The praises of YHWH, and His strength, and His wonders that He has done.

⁵For He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which He commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

⁵For He established a testimony in Jacob, and a law He has appointed in Israel, which He commanded to our fathers, to make them known to their sons,

⁶that the coming generation would know them—

even children yet to be born—

to arise and tell their own children

⁶so that a following generation would know them—the sons to be born—to arise and recount to their sons,

⁷that they should put their confidence in God,

not forgetting His works,

but keeping His commandments.

⁷that they should put their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, and keep His commandments.

⁸Then they will not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose heart was not loyal,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁸And they should not be like their fathers—a generation being stubborn and rebellious, a generation that did not set firm its heart, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The archers of Ephraim

turned back on the day of battle.

⁹The sons of Ephraim, handling and shooting the bow, turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They failed to keep God’s covenant

and refused to live by His law.

¹⁰They did not keep the covenant of God, and in His law they refused to walk,

¹¹They forgot what He had done,

the wonders He had shown them.

¹¹and they forgot His deeds, and His wonders that He had shown them.

¹²He worked wonders before their fathers

in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹²In the eyes of their fathers He did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them through;

He set the waters upright like a wall.

¹³He divided the sea and let them cross over, and the waters He made stand up like a heap.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day

and with a light of fire all night.

¹⁴And He led them with the cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

¹⁵He split open the rocks in the wilderness, and gave to drink, like the depths in abundance.

¹⁶He brought streams from the stone

and made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁶And He brought forth streams from the rock, and made waters come down like the rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against Him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁷And they added still to sin against Him by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They willfully tested God

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁸And they tested God in their heart, by requesting food of their soul.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

¹⁹And they spoke against God, saying, “Is God able to arrange a table in the wilderness?

²⁰When He struck the rock, water gushed out

and torrents raged.

But can He also give bread

or supply His people with meat?”

²⁰Behold, He struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and torrents overflowed; and also is He able to give bread or provide food for His people?”

²¹Therefore the LORD heard

and was filled with wrath;

so a fire was kindled against Jacob,

and His anger flared against Israel,

²¹Therefore YHWH heard and boiled over, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger came up against Israel,

²²because they did not believe God

or rely on His salvation.

²²because they did not have faith in God, and they did not trust in His salvation.

²³Yet He commanded the clouds above

and opened the doors of the heavens.

²³And He commanded the clouds above, and the doors of the heavens He opened.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat;

He gave them grain from heaven.^a

²⁴And He rained down on them manna to eat—and he gave to them the grain of the heavens.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels;

He sent them food in abundance.

²⁵The bread of the mighty ones a man ate; food He sent to them in abundance.

²⁶He stirred the east wind from the heavens

and drove the south wind by His might.

²⁶An east wind He caused to blow in the heavens, and He guided by His power the south wind.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust,

and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

²⁷And He rained upon them food like the dust, and winged bird like the sand of the seas,

²⁸He felled them in the midst of their camp,

all around their dwellings.

²⁸and He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

²⁹So they ate and were well filled,

for He gave them what they craved.

²⁹So they ate and were satisfied greatly, and their desires He brought to them.

³⁰Yet before they had filled their desire,

with the food still in their mouths,

³⁰They were not estranged from their desire, and still their food was in their mouth.

³¹God’s anger flared against them,

and He put to death their strongest

and subdued the young men of Israel.

³¹And the anger of God came upon them, and He killed the fattest of them and subdued the young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

³²In all this, still they sinned, and they did not have faith in His wonders.

³³So He ended their days in futility,^a

and their years in sudden terror.

³³And He finished off their days in futility, and their years in terror.

³⁴When He slew them, they would seek Him;

they repented and searched for God.

³⁴When He slew them, they would seek Him, and they turned back and sought after God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High^a was their Redeemer.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, and El-Elyon their Redeemer.

³⁶But they deceived Him with their mouths,

and lied to Him with their tongues.

³⁶And they deceived Him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to Him.

³⁷Their hearts were disloyal to Him,

and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

³⁷And their heart was not established with Him, and they were not faithful to His covenant.

³⁸And yet He was compassionate;

He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.

He often restrained His anger

and did not unleash His full wrath.

³⁸And He, the compassionate One, forgave the iniquity and did not destroy them; and He often restrained His anger, and He did not stir up all His wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

³⁹And He remembered that they were flesh, a breath going by that does not return.

⁴⁰How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness

and grieved Him in the desert!

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tested God

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴¹And they turned back and tested God, and they pained the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember His power—^a

the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

⁴²They have not remembered His hand, the day when He ransomed them from the adversary,

⁴³when He performed His signs in Egypt

and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

⁴³when He worked His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood,

and from their streams they could not drink.

⁴⁴And He turned their rivers into blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

and frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁵He sent among them the swarm, and it consumed them, and the frog, and it destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁶And He gave to the ravager their produce, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hailstones

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.^a

⁴⁷He destroyed with hail their vines, and their sycamore trees with frost.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hail

and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁸And He gave up to the hail their cattle, and their flocks to the firebolts.

⁴⁹He unleashed His fury against them,

wrath, indignation, and calamity—

a band of destroying angels.

⁴⁹He sent against them the burning of His anger—fury, and rage, and distress, a discharge of messengers of evils.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger;

He did not spare them from death

but delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵⁰He made level a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, and He gave over their life to the pestilence.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,

the virility in the tents of Ham.

⁵¹He even struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of the vigour in the tents of Ham.

⁵²He led out His people like sheep

and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵²And His people He made go forth like sheep, and He guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵³He led them safely, so they did not fear,

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵³And He led them to safety, and they did not dread, and the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to His holy land,

to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁴And He brought them to the border of His holiness, this mountain His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them

and apportioned their inheritance;

He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁵And He drove out the nations before their face, and caused them to fall in the line of inheritance, and the tribes of Israel He settled in their tents.

⁵⁶But they tested and disobeyed God Most High,

for they did not keep His decrees.

⁵⁶And they tested and provoked El-Elyon, and His testimonies they did not keep.

⁵⁷They turned back and were faithless like their fathers,

twisted like a faulty bow.

⁵⁷And they turned back and were treacherous like their fathers; they were turned like a bow of deceit.

⁵⁸They enraged Him with their high places

and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁸And they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and with their carved images they made Him jealous.

⁵⁹On hearing it, God was furious

and rejected Israel completely.

⁵⁹God heard and boiled over, and exceedingly He rejected Israel;

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

the tent He had pitched among men.

⁶⁰and He left behind the dwelling place of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men,

⁶¹He delivered His strength to captivity,

and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

⁶¹and He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

⁶²He surrendered His people to the sword

because He was enraged by His heritage.

⁶²And He delivered up His people to the sword, and on His inheritance He boiled over.

⁶³Fire consumed His young men,

and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

⁶³Fire consumed His young men, and His virgins have not been praised.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword,

but their widows could not lament.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, and the widows could not weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

⁶⁵And the Lord awoke as a sleeper, as a mighty one overcome by wine.

⁶⁶He beat back His foes;

He put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁶And He beat his adversaries back; a reproach forever He gave to them.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph

and refused the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁷And He rejected the tent of Joseph, and the tribe of Ephraim He would not choose.

⁶⁸But He chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁸And He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth He has established forever.

⁶⁹And He built His sanctuary like the heights; like the earth He founded it forever.

⁷⁰He chose David His servant

and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷⁰And He chose David His servant, and He took him from the folds of his flock;

⁷¹from tending the ewes He brought him

to be shepherd of His people Jacob,

of Israel His inheritance.

⁷¹He brought him from tending the ewes to be shepherd of Jacob His people, and of Israel His inheritance.

⁷²So David shepherded them with integrity of heart

and guided them with skillful hands.

⁷²And he tended them with the integrity of his heart, and by the skillfulness of his hands he guided them.