Book of Psalms, No. 78
Psalms 78 NWT - New World TranslationNo. 78 of the Psalms—New World Translation (NWT)
- ¶ Do give ear, O my people, to my law;1
Incline YOUR ear to the sayings of my mouth.2 - ¶ In a proverbial saying I will open my mouth;3
I will cause riddles of long ago to bubble forth,4 - ¶ Which we have heard and know,5
And which our own fathers have related to us;6 - ¶ Which we do not hide from their sons,7
Relating [them] even to the generation to come,8
¶ The praises of Jehovah and his strength9
And his wonderful things that he has done.10 - ¶ And he proceeded to raise up a reminder in Jacob,11
And a law he set in Israel,12
¶ Things that he commanded our forefathers,13
To make them known to their sons;14 - ¶ In order that the generation to come, the sons that were to be born, might know [them],15
That they might rise up and relate [them] to their sons,16 - ¶ And that they might set their confidence in God[a] himself17
And not forget the practices of God[b]18 but observe his own commandments.19 - ¶ And they should not become like their forefathers,20
A generation stubborn and rebellious,21
¶ A generation who had not prepared their heart22
And whose spirit was not trustworthy with God.[c]23 - ¶ The sons of Eʹphra·im, though armed shooters of the bow,24
Retreated in the day of fight.25 - ¶ They did not keep the covenant of God,[d]26
And in his law they refused to walk.27 - ¶ They also began to forget his dealings28
And his wonderful works that he caused them to see.29 - ¶ In front of their forefathers he had done marvelously30
In the land of Egypt,31 the field of Zoʹan.32 - ¶ He split the sea, that he might let them pass over,33
And he caused the waters to stand like a dam.34 - ¶ And he continued to lead them with a cloud by day35
And the whole night with a light of fire.36 - ¶ He proceeded to split rocks in the wilderness,37
That he might cause [them] to drink an abundance just like watery deeps.[e]38 - ¶ And he went bringing forth streams out of a crag39
And causing waters to descend just like rivers.40 - ¶ And they kept sinning still more against him41
By rebelling against the Most High in the waterless region;42 - ¶ And they proceeded to test God[f] in their heart43
By asking for something to eat for their soul.44 - ¶ So they began to speak against God.[g]45
They said: “Is God able to arrange a table in the wilderness?”46 - ¶ Look! He struck a rock47
That waters might flow and torrents themselves might flood forth.48
¶ “Is he able also to give bread itself,49
Or can he prepare sustenance for his people?”50 - ¶ That was why Jehovah heard and began to be furious;51
And fire itself was kindled against Jacob,52
And anger also ascended against Israel.53 - ¶ For they did not put faith in God,54
And they did not trust in salvation by him.55 - ¶ And he proceeded to command the cloudy skies above,
And he opened the very doors of heaven.56 - ¶ And he kept raining upon them manna to eat,57
And the grain of heaven he gave to them.58 - ¶ Men[h] ate the very bread of powerful ones;[i]59
Provisions he sent them to satisfaction.60 - ¶ He began making an east wind burst forth in the heavens61
And making a south wind blow by his own strength.62 - ¶ And he proceeded to make sustenance rain upon them just like dust,63
Even winged flying creatures just like the sand grains of the seas.64 - ¶ And he kept making [them] fall in the middle of his camp,65
All around his tabernacles.66 - ¶ And they went eating and satisfying themselves very much,67
And what they desired he proceeded to bring to them.68 - ¶ They had not turned aside from their desire,
While their food was yet in their mouth,69 - ¶ When God’s wrath itself ascended against them.70
And he went killing among their stout ones;71
And the young men of Israel he made collapse. - ¶ Despite all this they sinned some more72
And did not put faith in his wonderful works.73 - ¶ So he brought their days to an end as if a mere exhalation,74
And their years by the disturbance. - ¶ As often as he killed them, they also inquired for him,75
And they returned and looked for God.[j]76 - ¶ And they began to remember that God[k] was their Rock,77
And that God the Most High was their Avenger.78 - ¶ And they tried to fool him with their mouth;79
And with their tongue they tried to lie to him.80 - ¶ And their heart was not steadfast with him;81
And they did not prove faithful in his covenant.82 - ¶ But he was merciful;83 he would cover the error84 and not bring ruin.85
And many times he made his anger turn back,86
And he would not rouse up all his rage. - ¶ And he kept remembering that they were flesh,87
That the spirit[l] is going forth and does not come back.88 - ¶ How often they would rebel against him in the wilderness,89
They would make him feel hurt in the desert!90 - ¶ And again and again they would put God[m] to the test,91
And they pained even the Holy One of Israel.92 - ¶ They did not remember his hand,93
The day that he redeemed them from the adversary,94 - ¶ How he put his signs in Egypt itself95
And his miracles in the field of Zoʹan;96 - ¶ And how he began changing to blood their Nile canals,97
So that they could not drink from their own streams.98 - ¶ He proceeded to send upon them gadflies, that these might eat them up;99
And frogs, that these might bring them to ruin.100 - ¶ And he began to give to the cockroaches their yield,
And their toil to the locusts.101 - ¶ He went killing their vine even by the hail102
And their sycamore trees by hailstones.103 - ¶ And he proceeded to hand over their beasts of burden even to the hail104
And their livestock to the flaming fever. - ¶ He went sending upon them his burning anger,105
Fury and denunciation and distress,106
Deputations of angels bringing calamity.107 - ¶ He proceeded to prepare a pathway for his anger.108
He did not hold back their soul from death itself;
And their life he handed over even to the pestilence.[n]109 - ¶ Finally he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,110
The beginning of their generative power[o] in the tents of Ham.111 - ¶ Afterward he caused his people to depart just like a flock,112
And conducted them like a drove in the wilderness.113 - ¶ And he kept leading them in security, and they felt no dread;114
And the sea covered their enemies themselves.115 - ¶ And he proceeded to bring them to his holy territory,116
This mountainous region that his right hand acquired.117 - ¶ And because of them he gradually drove out the nations,118
And by the measuring line he went allotting them an inheritance,119
So that he caused the tribes of Israel to reside in their own homes.[p]120 - ¶ And they began to test and rebel against God the Most High,121
And his reminders they did not keep.122 - ¶ They also kept turning back and acting treacherously like their forefathers;123
They turned around like a loose bow.124 - ¶ And they kept offending him with their high places,125
And with their graven images they kept inciting him to jealousy.126 - ¶ God heard127 and got to be furious,128
And so he contemned Israel very much.129 - ¶ And he finally forsook the tabernacle of Shiʹloh,130
The tent in which he resided among earthling men.131 - ¶ And he proceeded to give his strength even to captivity132
And his beauty into the hand of the adversary.133 - ¶ And he kept handing over his people to the sword itself,134
And against his inheritance he became furious.135 - ¶ His young men a fire ate up,
And his virgins were not praised.[q]136 - ¶ As for his priests, they fell by the very sword,137
And their[r] own widows did not give way to weeping.138 - ¶ Then Jehovah[s] began to awake as from sleeping,139
Like a mighty one sobering up from wine.140 - ¶ And he went striking down his adversaries from behind;141
A reproach of indefinite duration he gave to them.142 - ¶ And he proceeded to reject the tent of Joseph;143
And the tribe of Eʹphra·im he did not choose.144 - ¶ But he chose the tribe of Judah,145
Mount Zion, which he loved.146 - ¶ And he began to build his sanctuary just like the heights,147
Like the earth that he has founded to time indefinite.148 - ¶ And so he chose David his servant149
And took him from the pens of the flock.150 - ¶ From following the females giving suck151
He brought him in to be a shepherd over Jacob his people152
And over Israel his inheritance.153 - ¶ And he began to shepherd them according to the integrity of his heart,154
And with the skillfulness of his hands he began leading them.155
FOOTNOTES
- ^ “In God.” Heb., vEʼ·lo·himʹ.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ.
- ^ Or, “just like surging waters.” Heb., kith·ho·mohthʹ. See 33:7 ftn, “Waters.”
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ “Against God.” Heb., bEʼ·lo·himʹ.
- ^ “Men.” Heb., ʼish.
- ^ “Powerful ones,” that is, superhuman ones. Heb., ʼab·bi·rimʹ; LXXSyVg, “angels”; T, “(that descended from) the habitation of angels.”
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ.
- ^ Or, “a wind.” Heb., ruʹach.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ Or, “(bubonic) plague.”
- ^ Lit., “of generative powers,” M; Sy, “of their offspring”; TLXXVg, “of their labor(s).”
- ^ Lit., “tents.”
- ^ “Praised,” that is, in wedding songs.
- ^ “Their,” LXXSyVg; MT, “his.”
- ^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
REFERENCES
- ^ Is 51:4
- ^ Ps 49:3
- ^ Ps 49:4; Mt 13:35
- ^ Ps 119:171; Pr 1:6; 18:4; Eze 17:2
- ^ Ps 44:1
- ^ Ex 13:8
- ^ De 4:9; 6:7, 21; Ps 145:4; Jl 1:3
- ^ De 11:19; Jos 4:6; Ps 71:18
- ^ Is 63:7
- ^ Ps 98:1
- ^ De 4:45
- ^ De 4:8; 27:3; Ps 147:19
- ^ Ro 3:2
- ^ Ge 18:19; De 6:7; Eph 6:4
- ^ Ps 71:18; 102:18
- ^ De 4:10
- ^ Ps 40:4; Je 17:7
- ^ De 4:9; Ps 103:2
- ^ De 5:29
- ^ 2Ki 17:14; Eze 20:18; Ac 7:51
- ^ Ex 32:9; De 1:43; 9:6; 31:27; Is 65:2
- ^ 2Ch 12:14; Ps 81:12; Je 5:23; 7:24
- ^ Ge 6:5
- ^ Ge 49:24
- ^ Jg 12:4
- ^ De 31:16; 2Ch 13:4, 11; Je 31:32
- ^ 2Ki 17:14; 2Ch 13:9; Ne 9:26
- ^ De 32:18; 2Ch 13:8, 12; Je 2:32
- ^ Ps 106:13, 22
- ^ De 4:34; Ne 9:10; Ps 105:29
- ^ Ps 105:27; 135:9
- ^ Nu 13:22; Is 19:11
- ^ Ex 14:21; Ps 66:6; 136:13; Is 63:13; 1Co 10:1
- ^ Ex 15:8; Ps 33:7
- ^ Ex 13:21; Ne 9:12
- ^ Ex 14:20, 24; Ps 105:39
- ^ Ex 17:6; Nu 20:11
- ^ Ps 105:41; Is 48:21; 1Co 10:4
- ^ De 8:15; Ne 9:15
- ^ Is 41:18
- ^ De 9:21
- ^ De 9:22; Ps 95:8; Heb 3:16
- ^ Ps 106:14
- ^ Ex 16:8
- ^ Nu 21:5
- ^ Nu 11:4
- ^ Ex 17:6
- ^ Nu 20:11
- ^ Ex 16:3
- ^ Nu 11:21
- ^ Nu 11:10; 1Co 10:5
- ^ De 32:22; Heb 12:29
- ^ Nu 11:1
- ^ Ps 106:24; Heb 3:10; Jd 5
- ^ De 32:15
- ^ Ge 7:11; Ml 3:10
- ^ Ex 16:14, 35; Nu 11:7; De 8:3; Ne 9:15; Jn 6:31; 1Co 10:3
- ^ Ex 16:31
- ^ Ps 103:20
- ^ Ex 16:12
- ^ Nu 11:31
- ^ Ps 135:7
- ^ Nu 11:19
- ^ Ex 16:13; Nu 11:32
- ^ Nu 11:31
- ^ Ex 40:29, 34
- ^ Ps 106:15
- ^ Nu 11:20
- ^ Nu 11:33
- ^ Nu 11:10
- ^ Nu 11:34
- ^ Nu 14:4; 25:3; 1Co 10:8, 9, 10
- ^ Ex 16:15; De 8:15
- ^ Nu 14:29, 35; De 2:14
- ^ Nu 21:7; Jg 4:3
- ^ De 30:2
- ^ De 32:4
- ^ Ex 6:6; 13:15
- ^ Eze 33:31
- ^ Ho 7:13
- ^ Ne 9:26; Ps 95:10; Heb 3:12
- ^ De 31:20; Je 31:32
- ^ Ex 34:6; Nu 14:18; Ne 9:31
- ^ Ps 65:3; 79:9
- ^ Nu 14:20; Je 30:11; La 3:22
- ^ Ne 9:27; Is 48:9; Eze 20:9
- ^ Ps 103:14
- ^ Ec 12:7
- ^ Nu 14:11; Ps 78:17
- ^ Is 63:10; Eph 4:30; Heb 3:16
- ^ Nu 14:22; De 6:16; Ps 95:9
- ^ 2Ki 19:22
- ^ De 9:26; Ps 78:11
- ^ Ex 14:30
- ^ De 4:34; Ne 9:10; Ps 105:27
- ^ Ps 78:12
- ^ Ex 7:20
- ^ Ps 105:29
- ^ Ex 8:24; Ps 105:31
- ^ Ex 8:6; Ps 105:30
- ^ Ex 10:15; Ps 105:34; Am 7:1
- ^ Ex 9:23; Ps 105:32
- ^ Ps 105:33
- ^ Ex 9:25
- ^ La 4:11
- ^ Ps 11:6; Is 42:25
- ^ 2Ki 6:17; Mt 26:53
- ^ Nu 25:4
- ^ Ex 9:6
- ^ Ex 12:29; 13:15; Ps 105:36; 135:8; 136:10
- ^ Ps 106:22
- ^ Ps 77:20; 105:37; 136:11
- ^ Ps 136:16
- ^ Ex 14:20; Heb 11:29
- ^ Ex 14:27; 15:10; Ps 136:15
- ^ Ex 15:17; Da 9:16
- ^ Ps 44:3
- ^ Jos 24:12; Ne 9:24; Ps 44:2; 105:44; 136:18
- ^ De 32:8; Jos 13:7; Ps 136:21
- ^ Ne 9:25
- ^ De 31:16; 32:15; Jg 2:11; 2Sa 20:1; Ne 9:26
- ^ 2Ki 17:15; Je 44:23
- ^ De 9:7; Jg 3:6; Eze 20:27
- ^ Ho 7:16
- ^ De 12:2; Jg 2:2; 1Ki 14:23; Eze 20:28
- ^ De 32:16; Jg 2:12; 1Sa 7:3; 1Ki 11:7; 12:28; 2Ki 21:7
- ^ Ps 94:9
- ^ Jg 2:20
- ^ Ps 106:40
- ^ Jos 18:1; 1Sa 4:11; Je 26:6
- ^ 1Sa 14:3; Je 7:12
- ^ 1Sa 5:1
- ^ 1Sa 4:21
- ^ 1Sa 4:2, 10; Je 7:34
- ^ Ps 89:38
- ^ 2Ch 36:17
- ^ 1Sa 2:33; 4:11; 22:18
- ^ 1Sa 4:19; Jb 27:15
- ^ Ps 44:23
- ^ Is 42:13
- ^ 1Sa 5:6
- ^ Je 23:40
- ^ Am 5:6
- ^ Ps 78:9
- ^ Ge 49:10
- ^ Ps 87:2; 132:13; 135:21
- ^ 2Ch 2:9; Ps 76:2; Heb 12:22
- ^ Ps 104:5; 119:90; Ec 1:4
- ^ 1Sa 16:12
- ^ 1Sa 17:15
- ^ Ge 33:13
- ^ Nu 27:17; 2Sa 7:8
- ^ 2Sa 6:21
- ^ 2Sa 8:15; 1Ki 3:6; 9:4; 15:5
- ^ 1Sa 18:14
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