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Psalm 78 :: New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB20)

God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.

Psa 78:1

A [fn]Maskil of Asaph.

Listen, my people, to my [fn]instruction;

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

Psa 78:2

I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will tell riddles of old,

Psa 78:3

Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

Psa 78:4

We will not conceal them from their children,

But we will tell the generation to come the praises of the LORD,

And His power and His wondrous works that He has done.

Psa 78:5

For He established a testimony in Jacob,

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers

That they were to [fn]teach them to their children,

Psa 78:6

So that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born,

That they would arise and tell them to their children,

Psa 78:7

So that they would put their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But comply with His commandments,

Psa 78:8

And not be like their fathers,

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not [fn]prepare its heart

And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Psa 78:9

The sons of Ephraim [fn]were archers equipped with bows,

Yet they turned back on the day of battle.

Psa 78:10

They did not keep the covenant of God

And refused to walk in His Law;

Psa 78:11

They forgot His deeds

And His [fn]miracles that He had shown them.

Psa 78:12

He performed wonders before their fathers

In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

Psa 78:13

He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,

And He made the waters stand up like a heap.

Psa 78:14

Then He led them with the cloud by day

And all the night with a light of fire.

Psa 78:15

He split the rocks in the wilderness

And gave them plenty to drink like the ocean depths.

Psa 78:16

He brought forth streams from the rock

And made waters run down like rivers.

Psa 78:17

Yet they still continued to sin against Him,

To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

Psa 78:18

And in their heart they put God to the test

By asking for food [fn]that suited their taste.

Psa 78:19

Then they spoke against God;

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

Psa 78:20

“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out,

And streams were overflowing;

Can He also provide bread?

Will He prepare meat for His people?”

Psa 78:21

Therefore the LORD heard and [fn]was full of wrath;

And a fire was kindled against Jacob,

And anger also mounted against Israel,

Psa 78:22

Because they did not believe in God

And did not trust in His salvation.

Psa 78:23

Yet He commanded the clouds above

And opened the doors of heaven;

Psa 78:24

He rained down manna upon them to eat,

And gave them [fn]food from heaven.

Psa 78:25

Man ate the bread of [fn]angels;

He sent them [fn]food [fn]in abundance.

Psa 78:26

He made the east wind blow in the sky

And by His [fn]power He directed the south wind.

Psa 78:27

When He rained meat upon them like the dust,

Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,

Psa 78:28

He let them fall in the midst of [fn]their camp,

All around their dwellings.

Psa 78:29

So they ate and were well filled,

And He [fn]satisfied their longing.

Psa 78:30

[fn]Yet before they had abandoned their longing,

While their food was in their mouths,

Psa 78:31

The anger of God rose against them

And killed [fn]some of their strongest ones,

And [fn]subdued the choice men of Israel.

Psa 78:32

In spite of all this they still sinned

And did not believe in His wonderful works.

Psa 78:33

So He brought their days to an end in futility,

And their years to an end in sudden terror.

Psa 78:34

When He killed them, then they sought Him,

And they returned and searched diligently for God;

Psa 78:35

And they remembered that God was their rock,

And the Most High God their Redeemer.

Psa 78:36

But they flattered Him with their mouth

And lied to Him with their tongue.

Psa 78:37

For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,

Nor were they faithful with His covenant.

Psa 78:38

But He, being compassionate, [fn]forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them;

And often He [fn]restrained His anger

And did not stir up all His wrath.

Psa 78:39

So He remembered that they were only flesh,

A [fn]wind that passes and does not return.

Psa 78:40

How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness

And grieved Him in the desert!

Psa 78:41

Again and again they [fn]tempted God,

And pained the Holy One of Israel.

Psa 78:42

They did not remember His [fn]power,

The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

Psa 78:43

When He performed His signs in Egypt

And His marvels in the field of Zoan,

Psa 78:44

And turned their rivers to blood,

And their streams, so that they could not drink.

Psa 78:45

He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them,

And frogs that destroyed them.

Psa 78:46

He also gave their crops to the grasshopper

And the product of their labor to the locust.

Psa 78:47

He [fn]destroyed their vines with hailstones

And their sycamore trees with frost.

Psa 78:48

He also turned their cattle over to the hailstones,

And their herds to bolts of lightning.

Psa 78:49

He sent His burning anger upon them,

Fury and indignation and trouble,

A band of [fn]destroying angels.

Psa 78:50

He leveled a path for His anger;

He did not spare their souls from death,

But turned their lives over to the plague,

Psa 78:51

And struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

The first and best of their vigor in the tents of Ham.

Psa 78:52

But He led His own people out like sheep,

And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

Psa 78:53

He led them safely, so that they did not fear;

But the sea engulfed their enemies.

Psa 78:54

So He brought them to His holy [fn]land,

To this [fn]hill country which His right hand had gained.

Psa 78:55

He also drove out the nations from them

And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,

And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

Psa 78:56

Yet they [fn]tempted and rebelled against the Most High God

And did not keep His testimonies,

Psa 78:57

But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;

They turned aside like a treacherous bow.

Psa 78:58

For they provoked Him with their high places

And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.

Psa 78:59

When God heard them, He [fn]was filled with wrath

And He utterly rejected Israel;

Psa 78:60

So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,

The tent [fn]which He had pitched among people,

Psa 78:61

And He gave up His strength to captivity

And His glory into the hand of the enemy.

Psa 78:62

He also turned His people over to the sword,

And [fn]was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

Psa 78:63

Fire devoured [fn]His young men,

And [fn]His virgins had no wedding songs.

Psa 78:64

[fn]His priests fell by the sword,

And [fn]His widows could not weep.

Psa 78:65

Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,

Like a warrior [fn]overcome by wine.

Psa 78:66

He [fn]drove His adversaries backward;

He put on them an everlasting disgrace.

Psa 78:67

He also rejected the tent of Joseph,

And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

Psa 78:68

But chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which He loved.

Psa 78:69

And He built His sanctuary like the heights,

Like the earth which He has established forever.

Psa 78:70

He also chose His servant David

And took him from the sheepfolds;

Psa 78:71

From [fn]the care of the [fn]ewes with nursing lambs He brought him

To shepherd Jacob His people,

And Israel His inheritance.

Psa 78:72

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,

And guided them with his skillful hands.

NASB20 Footnotes
Possibly, Contemplative; or Didactic; or Skillful Psalm
Or law, teaching
Lit make them known
Or put right
Or being
Or wonderful works
Lit to their soul
Or became infuriated
Lit grain
Lit mighty ones
Or provision
Lit to satiation
Or strength
Lit His
Lit brought to them their
Lit They did not turn away from their
Lit among their fat ones
Lit caused to bow down
Lit covered over, atoned for
Lit turned away
Or breath
Or put God to the test
Lit hand
Lit was killing
Lit angels of evil ones; another reading is evil angels
Lit border, territory
Or mountain
Or put to the test
Or became infuriated
Some ancient versions where He dwelt
Or became infuriated
Or their
Or their
Or their
Or their
Or sobered up from
Lit struck
Lit following
Lit ewes that wet-nurse, He
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Psalm Chapter 78 — Additional Translations: