Psalm 78
English translation got from website: https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo
- A maskil of Asaph. Hearken, my people, to my instruction, extend your ear to the words of my mouth.
- I shall open my mouth with a parable; I shall express riddles from time immemorial.
- That we heard and we knew them, and our forefathers told us.
- We shall not hide from their sons; to the last generation they will recite the praises of the Lord, and His might and His wonders, which He performed.
- And He established testimony in Jacob, and He set down a Torah in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to make them known to their sons.
- In order that the last generation might know, sons who will be born should tell their sons.
- And they should put their hope in God, and not forget the deeds of God, and keep His commandments.
- And they should not be as their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, who did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
- The sons of Ephraim, armed archers, retreated on the day of battle.
- They did not keep the covenant of God, and they refused to follow His Torah.
- They forgot His deeds and His wonders, which He showed them.
- Before their forefathers He wrought wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
- He split the sea and took them across, He made the water stand as a heap.
- He led them with a cloud by day, and all night with the light of fire.
- He split rocks in the desert and gave them to drink as [from] great deeps.
- He drew flowing water from a rock and brought down water like rivers.
- But they continued further to sin against Him, to provoke the Most High in the desert.
- They tried God in their heart by requesting food for their craving.
- And they spoke against God; they said, « Can God set a table in the desert?
- True, He struck a rock and water flowed, and streams flooded. Can He give meat too? Can He prepare flesh for His people? »
- Therefore, God heard and was incensed; fire was kindled against Jacob, and also wrath ascended upon Israel.
- Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation.
- And He had commanded the skies from above, and He had opened the portals of heaven.
- He had rained upon them manna to eat, and He had given them corn of heaven.
- Men ate the bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions for satisfaction.
- He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven, and He led the south wind with His might.
- He rained down flesh upon them like dust, and, like the sand of the seas, winged fowl.
- And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, around their dwellings.
- They ate and were very satisfied, and He brought them their desire.
- They were not estranged from their desire; while their food was still in their mouth,
- The wrath of God ascended upon them and slew [some] of their stoutest and caused the chosen of Israel to fall.
- Despite all this, they sinned again and did not believe despite His wonders.
- And He ended their days in vanity and their years in terror.
- When He slew them, they would seek Him, and they would repent and pray to God.
- And they remembered that God is their rock and the Most High God is their Redeemer.
- They beguiled Him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to Him.
- Their heart was not sincere with Him; they were not faithful in His covenant.
- But He is merciful, He expiates iniquity and does not destroy; many times He takes back His wrath and does not arouse all His anger.
- He remembers that they are flesh, a spirit that goes away and does not return.
- How often they provoked Him in the desert, vexed Him in the wasteland!
- They returned and tried God, and they sought a sign from the Holy One of Israel.
- They did not remember His hand, the day that He redeemed them from distress.
- Who placed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
- He turned their canals into blood, and their flowing waters they could not drink.
- He incited against them a mixture of wild beasts, which devoured them, and frogs, which mutilated them.
- He gave their produce to the finishing locusts and their toil to the increasing locusts.
- He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with locusts.
- He gave over their animals to the hail and their cattle to the fiery bolts.
- He dispatched against them the kindling of His anger-wrath, fury, and trouble, a delegation of evil messengers.
- He leveled a path for His anger; He did not withhold their soul from death, and He delivered their body to pestilence.
- He smote every firstborn in Egypt, the first fruit of their strength in the tents of Ham.
- Then He caused His people to journey like sheep, and He led them as a flock in the desert.
- He led them securely and they were not afraid, and the sea covered their enemies.
- He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, this mountain that His right hand had acquired.
- He drove out nations from before them, and allotted them an inheritance by line, and He caused the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- Yet they tried and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies.
- They turned back and dealt treacherously as their forefathers; they turned around like a deceitful bow.
- They provoked Him with their high places, and with their graven images they angered Him.
- God heard and became incensed, and He utterly rejected Israel.
- And He abandoned the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent that He had stationed among men.
- He delivered His might into captivity, and His glory into the hand of the adversary.
- And He delivered His people to the sword, and He became incensed with His inheritance.
- Fire consumed his youths and his virgins were not married.
- His priests fell by the sword, but his widows did not weep.
- And the Lord awoke as one asleep, as a mighty man, shouting from wine.
- And He smote His adversaries from the rear; He gave them perpetual disgrace.
- He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
- He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.
- And He built His Sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth He established it forever.
- And He chose His servant David and took him from the sheepcotes.
- From behind the nursing ewes He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people and Israel His heritage.
- And He shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and with the skill of his hands he led them.