Psalms 78
All 72 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.
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- 1Listen, my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
- 2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will speak dark sayings of old.
- 3These are things we have heard and known, things our fathers have told us.
- 4We will not hide these things from their children, but will tell the coming generation the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done.
- 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,
- 6so that the coming generation might know them, even the children yet to be born, who would rise up and declare them to their children,
- 7that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,
- 8and might not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation — a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
- 9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
- 10They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in his law.
- 11They forgot his works and his wonders that he had shown them.
- 12He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
- 13He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters stand as a heap.
- 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 out of the great depths.
- 16He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
- 17Yet they sinned still more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
- 18They tested God in their heart by asking food for their lust.
- 19Yes, they spoke against God; they said, 'Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?'
- 20'Look, he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people?'
- 21Therefore the LORD heard this and was angry; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel,
- 22because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation.
- 23Yet he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven,
- 24and had rained down manna on them to eat, and had given them of the grain of heaven.
- 25Man ate angels' food; he sent them meat to the full.
- 26He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power he brought in the south wind.
- 27He rained flesh also on them as dust, and feathered birds like the sand of the sea.
- 28And he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.
- 29So they ate and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire.
- 30They were not estranged from their lust. But while their food was yet in their mouths,
- 31the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them, and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
- 32For all this they sinned still and did not believe in his wondrous works.
- 33Therefore their days he consumed in vanity and their years in trouble.
- 34When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God.
- 35And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.
- 36Nevertheless they flattered him with their mouth and lied to him with their tongues.
- 37For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
- 38But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath.
- 39For he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again.
- 40How often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
- 41Yes, they turned back and tested God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
- 42They did not remember his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy,
- 43how he had wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan;
- 44and had turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
- 45He sent various sorts of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
- 46He gave also their increase to the caterpillar and their labor to the locust.
- 47He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost.
- 48He gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
- 49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
- 50He made a path for his anger; he did not spare their soul from death but gave their life over to the pestilence.
- 51And he struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
- 52But he made his own people go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
- 53And he led them on safely, so that they did not fear, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
- 54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain which his right hand had purchased.
- 55He cast out the nations also before them and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- 56Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies.
- 57But they turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
- 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their carved images.
- 59When God heard this, he was angry and greatly abhorred Israel,
- 60so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,
- 61and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hand.
- 62He gave his people over also to the sword and was angry with his inheritance.
- 63The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
- 64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
- 65Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.
- 66And he struck his enemies in the hinder parts; he put them to a perpetual reproach.
- 67Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
- 68but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
- 69And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he has established forever.
- 70He chose David also his servant and took him from the sheepfolds.
- 71From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
- 72So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.