78
1 (Maskil of Asaph)
Give ear, O my people, to my torah;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a mashal;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
and Avoteinu have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their banim,
recounting to the dor acharon
the tehillot Hashem, and His power,
and His nifla'ot (wonderful works) that He hath done.
5 For He established edut in Ya'akov,
set torah in Yisroel,
which He commanded Avoteinu,
that they should make them known to their banim;
6 So that the dor acharon might know them,
even the banim which should be born;
who should arise and recount them to their banim;
7 That they might put their confidence in Elohim,
and not forget the ma'allei El (works of G-d),
but keep His mitzvot;
8 And might not be as their Avot,
a dor sorer u'moreh (stubborn and rebellious generation);
a generation that set not its lev aright,
and whose ruach was not faithful to G-d.
9 The Bnei Ephrayim, being armed, and shooting keshet (the bows),
turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the Brit Elohim,
and refused to walk in His torah;
11 And forgot His works,
and His nifla'ot (wonders) that He had shown them.
12 Peleh (marvellous things) did He in the sight of their avot,
in Eretz Mitzrayim, in the sadeh (area) of Tzoan.
13 He divided the yam, and caused them to pass through;
and He made the mayim to stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with an anan,
and all the lailah with an ohr of eish.
15 He split the rocks in the midbar,
and gave them drink as out of the great tehomot.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock,
and caused mayim to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against Him
by provoking Elyon in the wilderness.
18 And they tested G-d by their lev
by demanding ochel for their lust.
19 And they spoke against Elohim;
they said, Can G-d spread a shulchan in the midbar?
20 Behold, He struck the Tzur, that the mayim gushed out,
and the streams overflowed;
can He give lechem also?
Can He provide meat for His people?
21 Therefore Hashem heard this, and was in wrath;
so an eish was kindled against Ya'akov,
and anger also came up against Yisroel;
22 Because they believed not in Elohim,
and trusted not in His Yeshu'ah (salvation);
23 Though He had commanded the clouds from above,
and opened the daletei Shomayim (doors of heaven),
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat,
and had given them of the bread of Shomayim.*
25 Ish did eat the bread of angels;
He sent them lechem to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow from Shomayim;
and by His oz He brought in the south wind.
27 He rained meat also upon them like aphar,
and winged fowls like the chol (sand) of the sea;
28 And He let it fall in the midst of their machaneh,
all around their mishkenot (habitations).
29 So they did eat, and were well filled;
for He gave them their own ta'avah (evil desire).
30 They were not estranged from their ta'avah.
But while their food was yet in their mouths,
31 The Af Elohim (wrath of G-d) came upon them,
and slaughtered the stoutest of them,
and cut down the bochurim of Yisroel.
32 For all this they sinned still,
and believed not in His nifla'ot (wondrous works).
33 Therefore their yamim did He consume in hevel (futility, vanity)
and their shanim in terror.
34 When He slaughtered them, then they sought Him;
and they returned and inquired diligently after G-d.
35 And they remembered that Elohim was their Tzur,
and the El Elyon their Go'el (Redeemer).
36 Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth,
and they lied unto Him with their leshon.
37 For their lev was not right with Him,
neither were they faithful in His Brit.
38 But He, being full of compassion,
made kapporah for their avon and destroyed them not;
and He many times turned His anger away,
and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were but basar;
a ruach (wind) that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke Him in the midbar,
and grieve Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they turned back and tested G-d,
and imposed limits on Kadosh Yisroel.
42 They remembered not His Yad (Hand, Power),
nor the yom (day) when He redeemed them from the enemy.
43 How He had wrought His otot in Mitzrayim,
and His mofetim in the area of Tzoan.
44 And had turned their rivers into dahm;
and their streams, that they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them,
which devoured them;
and tzfarde'a (frogs), which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crop unto the grasshopper,
and their produce unto the arbeh (locust).
47 He destroyed their gefen with barad (hail),
and their fig trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the barad (hail),
and their livestock herds to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them His charon af,
evrah (wrath), and za'am (indignation), and tzarah,
by sending malachim ra'im among them.
50 He made a way for His anger;
He spared not their nefesh from mavet (death),
but gave their beasts over to the dever (plague);
51 And struck all the bechor in Mitzrayim;
the reshit (first fruit) of their strength in the ohalim of Cham;
52 But made His own people to go forth like tzon,
and guided them in the midbar like an eder (flock).
53 And He led them in safety, so that they had no terror;
but the yam overwhelmed their oyevim.
54 And He brought them to His gevul kadosh (His holy border),
even to this Har, which His Yamin had purchased.
55 He cast out the Goyim also before them,
and divided by measure a nachalah for them,
and made the Shivtei Yisroel
to dwell in their ohalim.
56 Yet they tested and provoked Elohim Elyon,
and were not shomer over His edot;
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their avot;
they turned like a treacherous keshet.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places,
and moved Him to jealousy with their pesilim.
59 When Elohim heard this, He was in wrath,
and greatly abhorred Yisroel;
60 So that He forsook the Mishkan of Shiloh,
the Ohel which He placed among adam (men);
61 And delivered His oz (strength) into captivity,
and His tiferet into the hand of the enemy.
62 He gave His people over also unto the cherev;
and was in wrath with His nachalah.
63 The eish consumed their bochurim;
and their betulot had no wedding celebration.
64 Their kohanim fell by the cherev;
and their almanot made no lamentation.
65 Then Adonoi awaked as one from sleep,
and like a gibbor that shouteth from yayin.
66 And He struck down His enemies behind;
He put them to cherpat olam (perpetual reproach).
67 Moreover He rejected the Ohel Yosef,
and chose not the Shevet Ephrayim;
68 But chose the Shevet Yehudah,
Har Tziyon which He loved.
69 And He built His Mikdash like heavenly heights,
like Eretz which He hath established l'olam.
70 He chose Dovid also His Eved,
and took him from the mikhle'ot tzon (sheepfolds);
71 From following the nursing ewes He brought him
to shepherd Ya'akov His people,
and Yisroel His nachalah.
72 So he shepherded them according to the tohm (integrity, guilelessness) of his lev;
and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.
* 78:24 See Yn 6:31