Mas′kil.* Of A′saph.+

78 Do give ear, O my people, to my law;+

Incline YOUR ear to the sayings of my mouth.+

 ² In a proverbial saying I will open my mouth;+

I will cause riddles of long ago to bubble forth,+

 ³ Which we have heard and know,+

And which our own fathers have related to us;+

 ⁴ Which we do not hide from their sons,+

Relating [them] even to the generation to come,+

The praises of Jehovah and his strength+

And his wonderful things that he has done.+

 ⁵ And he proceeded to raise up a reminder in Jacob,+

And a law he set in Israel,+

Things that he commanded our forefathers,+

To make them known to their sons;+

 ⁶ In order that the generation to come, the sons that were to be born, might know [them],+

That they might rise up and relate [them] to their sons,+

 ⁷ And that they might set their confidence in God* himself+

And not forget the practices of God*+ but observe his own commandments.+

 ⁸ And they should not become like their forefathers,+

A generation stubborn and rebellious,+

A generation who had not prepared their heart+

And whose spirit was not trustworthy with God.*+

 ⁹ The sons of E′phra·im, though armed shooters of the bow,+

Retreated in the day of fight.+

¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God,*+

And in his law they refused to walk.+

¹¹ They also began to forget his dealings+

And his wonderful works that he caused them to see.+

¹² In front of their forefathers he had done marvelously+

In the land of Egypt,+ the field of Zo′an.+

¹³ He split the sea, that he might let them pass over,+

And he caused the waters to stand like a dam.+

¹⁴ And he continued to lead them with a cloud by day+

And the whole night with a light of fire.+

¹⁵ He proceeded to split rocks in the wilderness,+

That he might cause [them] to drink an abundance just like watery deeps.*+

¹⁶ And he went bringing forth streams out of a crag+

And causing waters to descend just like rivers.+

¹⁷ And they kept sinning still more against him+

By rebelling against the Most High in the waterless region;+

¹⁸ And they proceeded to test God* in their heart+

By asking for something to eat for their soul.+

¹⁹ So they began to speak against God.*+

They said: “Is God able to arrange a table in the wilderness?”+

²⁰ Look! He struck a rock+

That waters might flow and torrents themselves might flood forth.+

“Is he able also to give bread itself,+

Or can he prepare sustenance for his people?”+

²¹ That was why Jehovah heard and began to be furious;+

And fire itself was kindled against Jacob,+

And anger also ascended against Israel.+

²² For they did not put faith in God,+

And they did not trust in salvation by him.+

²³ And he proceeded to command the cloudy skies above,

And he opened the very doors of heaven.+

²⁴ And he kept raining upon them manna to eat,+

And the grain of heaven he gave to them.+

²⁵ Men* ate the very bread of powerful ones;*+

Provisions he sent them to satisfaction.+

²⁶ He began making an east wind burst forth in the heavens+

And making a south wind blow by his own strength.+

²⁷ And he proceeded to make sustenance rain upon them just like dust,+

Even winged flying creatures just like the sand grains of the seas.+

²⁸ And he kept making [them] fall in the middle of his camp,+

All around his tabernacles.+

²⁹ And they went eating and satisfying themselves very much,+

And what they desired he proceeded to bring to them.+

³⁰ They had not turned aside from their desire,

While their food was yet in their mouth,+

³¹ When God’s wrath itself ascended against them.+

And he went killing among their stout ones;+

And the young men of Israel he made collapse.

³² Despite all this they sinned some more+

And did not put faith in his wonderful works.+

³³ So he brought their days to an end as if a mere exhalation,+

And their years by the disturbance.

³⁴ As often as he killed them, they also inquired for him,+

And they returned and looked for God.*+

³⁵ And they began to remember that God* was their Rock,+

And that God the Most High was their Avenger.+

³⁶ And they tried to fool him with their mouth;+

And with their tongue they tried to lie to him.+

³⁷ And their heart was not steadfast with him;+

And they did not prove faithful in his covenant.+

³⁸ But he was merciful;+ he would cover the error+ and not bring ruin.+

And many times he made his anger turn back,+

And he would not rouse up all his rage.

³⁹ And he kept remembering that they were flesh,+

That the spirit* is going forth and does not come back.+

⁴⁰ How often they would rebel against him in the wilderness,+

They would make him feel hurt in the desert!+

⁴¹ And again and again they would put God* to the test,+

And they pained even the Holy One of Israel.+

⁴² They did not remember his hand,+

The day that he redeemed them from the adversary,+

⁴³ How he put his signs in Egypt itself+

And his miracles in the field of Zo′an;+

⁴⁴ And how he began changing to blood their Nile canals,+

So that they could not drink from their own streams.+

⁴⁵ He proceeded to send upon them gadflies, that these might eat them up;+

And frogs, that these might bring them to ruin.+

⁴⁶ And he began to give to the cockroaches their yield,

And their toil to the locusts.+

⁴⁷ He went killing their vine even by the hail+

And their sycamore trees by hailstones.+

⁴⁸ And he proceeded to hand over their beasts of burden even to the hail+

And their livestock to the flaming fever.

⁴⁹ He went sending upon them his burning anger,+

Fury and denunciation and distress,+

Deputations of angels bringing calamity.+

⁵⁰ He proceeded to prepare a pathway for his anger.+

He did not hold back their soul from death itself;

And their life he handed over even to the pestilence.*+

⁵¹ Finally he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,+

The beginning of their generative power* in the tents of Ham.+

⁵² Afterward he caused his people to depart just like a flock,+

And conducted them like a drove in the wilderness.+

⁵³ And he kept leading them in security, and they felt no dread;+

And the sea covered their enemies themselves.+

⁵⁴ And he proceeded to bring them to his holy territory,+

This mountainous region that his right hand acquired.+

⁵⁵ And because of them he gradually drove out the nations,+

And by the measuring line he went allotting them an inheritance,+

So that he caused the tribes of Israel to reside in their own homes.*+

⁵⁶ And they began to test and rebel against God the Most High,+

And his reminders they did not keep.+

⁵⁷ They also kept turning back and acting treacherously like their forefathers;+

They turned around like a loose bow.+

⁵⁸ And they kept offending him with their high places,+

And with their graven images they kept inciting him to jealousy.+

⁵⁹ God heard+ and got to be furious,+

And so he contemned Israel very much.+

⁶⁰ And he finally forsook the tabernacle of Shi′loh,+

The tent in which he resided among earthling men.+

⁶¹ And he proceeded to give his strength even to captivity+

And his beauty into the hand of the adversary.+

⁶² And he kept handing over his people to the sword itself,+

And against his inheritance he became furious.+

⁶³ His young men a fire ate up,

And his virgins were not praised.*+

⁶⁴ As for his priests, they fell by the very sword,+

And their* own widows did not give way to weeping.+

⁶⁵ Then Jehovah* began to awake as from sleeping,+

Like a mighty one sobering up from wine.+

⁶⁶ And he went striking down his adversaries from behind;+

A reproach of indefinite duration he gave to them.+

⁶⁷ And he proceeded to reject the tent of Joseph;+

And the tribe of E′phra·im he did not choose.+

⁶⁸ But he chose the tribe of Judah,+

Mount Zion, which he loved.+

⁶⁹ And he began to build his sanctuary just like the heights,+

Like the earth that he has founded to time indefinite.+

⁷⁰ And so he chose David his servant+

And took him from the pens of the flock.+

⁷¹ From following the females giving suck+

He brought him in to be a shepherd over Jacob his people+

And over Israel his inheritance.+

⁷² And he began to shepherd them according to the integrity of his heart,+

And with the skillfulness of his hands he began leading them.+