Chapter 78

  Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  

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  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,  

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

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  We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.  

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  For 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;  

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  That the generation to come might know [them], even the children that should be born; Who should arise and tell [them] to their children,  

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  That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,  

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  And 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.  

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

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

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  And they forgat his doings, And his wondrous works that he had showed them.  

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

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  He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as a heap.  

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  In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, And all the night with a light of fire.  

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  He clave rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.  

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

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  Yet went they on still to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.  

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  And they tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.  

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  Yea, they spake against God; They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?  

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  Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?  

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  Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also went up against Israel;  

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  Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation.  

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  Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven;  

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  And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven.  

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  Man did eat the bread of the mighty: He sent them food to the full.  

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  He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; And by his power he guided the south wind.  

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  He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, And winged birds as the sand of the seas:  

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

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

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  They were not estranged from that which they desired, Their food was yet in their mouths,  

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  When the anger of God went up against them, And slew of the fattest of them, And smote down the young men of Israel.  

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  For all this they sinned still, And believed not in his wondrous works.  

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  Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, And their years in terror.  

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

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  And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their redeemer.  

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  But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied unto him with their tongue.  

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  For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.  

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  But he, being merciful, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath.  

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  And he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.  

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  How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!  

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  And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.  

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  They remember not his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;  

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  How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan,  

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  And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.  

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  He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.  

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  He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labor unto the locust.  

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  He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycomore-trees with frost.  

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

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  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.  

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

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  And smote all the first-born in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.  

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  But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.  

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  And he led them safely, so that they feared not; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.  

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  And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.  

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  He drove out the nations also before them, And allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.  

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  Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And kept not his testimonies;  

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  But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.  

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

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  When God heard [this], he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;  

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

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  And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary's hand.  

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  He gave his people over also unto the sword, And was wroth with his inheritance.  

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  Fire devoured their young men; And their virgins had no marriage-song.  

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

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  Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.  

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  And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach.  

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  Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,  

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

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  And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he hath established for ever.  

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

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  From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.  

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  So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.   

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