Tehillim 78:1-72 תהילים ע״ח:א׳-ע״ב

A Maskil of Asaf. Give ear, O my people, to my Tora: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth with a parable: I will utter riddles concerning ancient times:

of that which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, relating to the latter generation the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done.

For he established a Testimony in Ya῾aqov, and appointed a Tora in Yisra᾽el, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

that the generation to come might know them, the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

and that they might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

The children of Efrayim were as archers, carrying bows, who turned back in the day of battle.

They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to follow his Tora;

and forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shown them.

Marvellous things he did in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Miżrayim, in the field of Żo῾an.

He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand like a heap.

In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

And they sinned yet more against him, rebelling against the most High in the wilderness.

And they tempted God in their heart by asking food for their craving.

And they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide meat for his people?

Therefore the Lord heard this, and was angry: so a fire was kindled against Ya῾aqov, and anger also came up against Yisra᾽el;

because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

though he commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

and rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven.

Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provision to the full.

He caused an east wind to blow in the sky: and by his power he brought on the south wind.

And he rained meat upon them like dust, and feathered birds like the sand of the sea:

and he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

they were not yet sated with their lust: whilst their meat was still in their mouths,

the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the young men of Yisra᾽el.

For all this they sinned still, and did not believe in his wondrous works.

Therefore he ended their days with emptiness, and their years with trouble.

When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and earnestly inquired after God.

And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouths, and they lied to him with their tongues.

For their heart was not steadfast with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

But he was full of compassion, forgiving iniquity, and he did not destroy them: often he turned away his anger, not stirring up all his wrath.

For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again.

How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

They turned back also and tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Yisra᾽el.

They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

How he had wrought his signs in Miżrayim, and his wonders in the field of Żo῾an:

and had turned their canals into blood; and their floods, so that they could not drink.

He sent swarms of gnats among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

He gave also their increase to the destroying locust, and their labour to the swarming locust.

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

He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, an embassy of evil messengers.

He levelled a path for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

and smote all the firstborn in Miżrayim; the first of their strength in the tents of Ḥam:

but made his own people to go out like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

And he brought them to his holy border, to the mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

He cast out nations before them, and apportioned to them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Yisra᾽el to dwell in their tents.

Yet they tempted and rebelled against the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their carved idols.

When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Yisra᾽el:

so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shilo, the tent where he made his dwelling among men;

and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

He gave his people over also to the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

The fire consumed their young men; and their virgins had no marriage song.

Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.

And he smote his enemies backward: he put upon them a perpetual reproach.

And he rejected the tabernacle of Yosef, and chose not the tribe of Efrayim:

but chose the tribe of Yehuda, the mount Żiyyon which he loved.

And he built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth which he has established for ever.

And chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

from following the ewes that gave suck, he brought him to be shepherd of Ya῾aqov his people, and Yisra᾽el his inheritance.

So he tended them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.