Psalm 78, side by side

¹A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth.

¹Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

²I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

³that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

³Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

⁵For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

⁶that the coming generation would know them— even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children

⁶That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

⁷that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

⁷That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

⁸Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁸And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

¹⁰They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

¹¹They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.

¹¹And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

¹²He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹²Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.

¹³He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day and with a light of fire all night.

¹⁴In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

¹⁵He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

¹⁶He brought streams from the stone and made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁷And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

¹⁸They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁸And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

¹⁹Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

²⁰When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”

²⁰Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

²¹Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,

²¹Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

²²because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation.

²²Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

²³Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

²³Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

²⁴And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

²⁵Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.

²⁶He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.

²⁶He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

²⁷He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

²⁸He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

²⁸And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

²⁹So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved.

²⁹So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

³⁰Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths,

³⁰They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

³¹The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

³²For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

³³So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

³³Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

³⁴When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

³⁴When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

³⁶But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues.

³⁶Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

³⁷Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

³⁸And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

³⁸But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

³⁹For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

⁴⁰How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴¹Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember His power— the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

⁴²They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

⁴³when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

⁴³How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

⁴⁴And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁵He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁸He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity— a band of destroying angels.

⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵⁰He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.

⁵¹And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

⁵²He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵²But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵³And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁴And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁵He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

⁵⁷They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

⁶²He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged by His heritage.

⁶²He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

⁶³The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

⁶⁵Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁶And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph and refused the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁷Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

⁶⁸But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

⁶⁹And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷⁰He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance.

⁷¹From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷²So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.

⁷²So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.