Psalm 78 :: New International Version (NIV)

Psa 78:1A maskil[fn] of Asaph. My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.

Psa 78:2I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

Psa 78:3things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.

Psa 78:4We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.

Psa 78:5

Psa 78:5He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,

Psa 78:6

Psa 78:6so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

Psa 78:7

Psa 78:7Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.

Psa 78:8

Psa 78:8They would not be like their ancestors— a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.

Psa 78:9

Psa 78:9The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;

Psa 78:10

Psa 78:10they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.

Psa 78:11

Psa 78:11They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

Psa 78:12

Psa 78:12He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

Psa 78:13

Psa 78:13He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand up like a wall.

Psa 78:14

Psa 78:14He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.

Psa 78:15

Psa 78:15He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

Psa 78:16

Psa 78:16he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.

Psa 78:17

Psa 78:17But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.

Psa 78:18

Psa 78:18They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.

Psa 78:19

Psa 78:19They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?

Psa 78:20

Psa 78:20True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?”

Psa 78:21

Psa 78:21When the LORD heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,

Psa 78:22

Psa 78:22for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.

Psa 78:23

Psa 78:23Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;

Psa 78:24

Psa 78:24he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.

Psa 78:25

Psa 78:25Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.

Psa 78:26

Psa 78:26He let loose the east wind from the heavens and by his power made the south wind blow.

Psa 78:27

Psa 78:27He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like sand on the seashore.

Psa 78:28

Psa 78:28He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.

Psa 78:29

Psa 78:29They ate till they were gorged— he had given them what they craved.

Psa 78:30

Psa 78:30But before they turned from what they craved, even while the food was still in their mouths,

Psa 78:31

Psa 78:31God’s anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.

Psa 78:32

Psa 78:32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

Psa 78:33

Psa 78:33So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.

Psa 78:34

Psa 78:34Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.

Psa 78:35

Psa 78:35They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

Psa 78:36

Psa 78:36But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;

Psa 78:37

Psa 78:37their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.

Psa 78:38

Psa 78:38Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.

Psa 78:39

Psa 78:39He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

Psa 78:40

Psa 78:40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!

Psa 78:41

Psa 78:41Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

Psa 78:42

Psa 78:42They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

Psa 78:43

Psa 78:43the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.

Psa 78:44

Psa 78:44He turned their river into blood; they could not drink from their streams.

Psa 78:45

Psa 78:45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

Psa 78:46

Psa 78:46He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.

Psa 78:47

Psa 78:47He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

Psa 78:48

Psa 78:48He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

Psa 78:49

Psa 78:49He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility— a band of destroying angels.

Psa 78:50

Psa 78:50He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.

Psa 78:51

Psa 78:51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

Psa 78:52

Psa 78:52But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness.

Psa 78:53

Psa 78:53He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.

Psa 78:54

Psa 78:54And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.

Psa 78:55

Psa 78:55He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

Psa 78:56

Psa 78:56But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.

Psa 78:57

Psa 78:57Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.

Psa 78:58

Psa 78:58They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

Psa 78:59

Psa 78:59When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely.

Psa 78:60

Psa 78:60He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans.

Psa 78:61

Psa 78:61He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

Psa 78:62

Psa 78:62He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance.

Psa 78:63

Psa 78:63Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs;

Psa 78:64

Psa 78:64their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.

Psa 78:65

Psa 78:65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.

Psa 78:66

Psa 78:66He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.

Psa 78:67

Psa 78:67Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

Psa 78:68

Psa 78:68but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

Psa 78:69

Psa 78:69He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

Psa 78:70

Psa 78:70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

Psa 78:71

Psa 78:71from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.

Psa 78:72

Psa 78:72And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(78:1)

Title: Probably a literary or musical term

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

Psalm Chapter 78 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Psalm 78 :: New International Version (NIV)

NIV Footnotes

Psalm Chapter 78 — Additional Translations:

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