Psalm
78 Listen, my people, to my law;*
Incline your ear to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a proverb.
I will propound riddles of long ago.+
3 The things we have heard and know,
Which our fathers have related to us,+
4 We will not hide from their sons;
We will relate to the generation to come+
The praiseworthy deeds of Jehovah and his strength,+
The wonderful things he has done.+
5 He established a reminder in Jacob
And set a law in Israel;
He commanded our forefathers
To make these things known to their children,+
6 So that the next generation,
The children yet to be born, might know them.+
They in turn would relate them to their children.+
7 Then these would put their confidence in God.
8 Then they would not be like their forefathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,+
A generation whose heart was unsteady*+
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Eʹphra·im·ites were armed with the bow,
But they retreated in the day of battle.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their forefathers,+
In the land of Egypt, the region of Zoʹan.+
14 He led them with a cloud by day
And the whole night with the light of a fire.+
15 He split rocks in the wilderness,
He let them drink their fill as if from deep waters.+
16 He brought streams out of a crag
And caused waters to flow down like rivers.+
17 But they continued to sin against him
By rebelling against the Most High in the desert;+
18 They challenged* God in their heart+
By demanding food that they craved.*
19 So they spoke against God,
Saying: “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?”+
20 Look! He struck a rock
So that waters flowed and streams flooded out.+
“Can he also give us bread,
Or can he provide meat for his people?”+
21 When Jehovah heard them, he became furious;+
A fire+ blazed against Jacob,
And his anger flared up against Israel+
22 Because they did not put faith in God;+
They did not trust in his ability to save them.
23 So he commanded the cloudy skies above,
And he opened the doors of heaven.
24 He kept raining down manna for them to eat;
He gave them the grain of heaven.+
26 He stirred up the east wind in the heavens
And made a south wind blow by his power.+
27 And he rained down meat on them like dust,
Birds like the sand of the seashore.
28 He made them fall in the midst of his camp,
All around his tents.
29 And they ate and gorged themselves;
He gave them what they desired.+
30 But before they fully satisfied their craving,
While their food was yet in their mouth,
31 God’s wrath flared up against them.+
He put to death their strongest men;+
He brought down the young men of Israel.
33 So he brought their days to an end as if a mere breath,+
And their years by sudden terrors.
34 But as often as he killed them, they would search for him;+
They would return and look for God,
35 Remembering that God was their Rock+
36 But they tried to deceive him with their mouth
And lied to him with their tongue.
He often held back his anger+
Instead of stirring up all his wrath.
42 They did not remember his power,*
The day that he rescued* them from the adversary,+
43 How he displayed his signs in Egypt+
And his miracles in the region of Zoʹan,
44 And how he turned the Nile canals into blood+
So that they could not drink from their streams.
46 He gave their crops to the voracious locusts,
The fruit of their labor to the swarming locusts.+
47 He destroyed their vines with hail+
And their sycamore trees with hailstones.
49 He inflicted his burning anger on them,
Fury and indignation and distress,
Companies of angels bringing calamity.
50 He cleared a pathway for his anger.
51 Finally he struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,+
The beginning of their procreative power in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he brought his people out like a flock+
And guided them like a drove in the wilderness.
54 And he brought them to his holy territory,+
This mountainous region that his right hand acquired.+
55 He drove out the nations from before them;+
He allotted to them an inheritance by the measuring line;+
He settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.+
56 But they kept challenging* God the Most High, and rebelling against him;+
They did not pay attention to his reminders.+
57 They also turned away and were as treacherous as their forefathers.+
They were as unreliable as a loose bow.+
58 They kept offending him with their high places,+
59 God heard and became furious,+
So he utterly rejected Israel.
61 He let the symbol of his strength go into captivity;
His splendor into the hand of the adversary.+
62 He handed his people over to the sword+
And became furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed his young men,
And to his virgins no wedding songs were sung.*
66 And he drove his adversaries back;+
He put them to lasting disgrace.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph;
He did not choose the tribe of Eʹphra·im.
69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens,*+
Like the earth that he has established forever.+