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Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

78:2
I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;

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That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,

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We will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, 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 put their confidence 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 were as archers handling the bow, that 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 forgot His doings, and His wondrous works that He had shown 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 cleaved the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.

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By day also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

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He cleaved rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the great deep.

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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 tried God in their heart by asking food for their craving.

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Yea, they spoke against God; they said: 'Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

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Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can He give bread also? or will He provide flesh for His people?'

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Therefore the Lord 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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And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;

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And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven.

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Man did eat the bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions to the full.

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He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven; and by His power He brought on the south wind.

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He caused flesh also to rain upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas;

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And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings.

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So they did eat, and were well filled; and He gave them that which they craved.

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They were not estranged from their craving, their food was yet in their mouths,

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When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the lustieth among 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 He ended their days as a breath, and their years in terror.

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When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek 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 beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongue.

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For their heart was not stedfast with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.

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But He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity, and destroyeth not; yea, many a time doth He turn His anger away, and doth not stir up all His wrath.

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So 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!

78:41
And still again they tried God, and set bounds to the Holy One of Israel.

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They remembered 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, so that they could not drink their streams.

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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 labour unto the locust.

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He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.

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He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to fiery bolts.

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He sent forth upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a sending of messengers of evil.

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He levelled 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 first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;

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But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

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And He led them safely, and they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

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And He brought them to His holy border, to the 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 tried and provoked God, the Most High, 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 with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

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God heard, and was wroth, and He greatly abhorred Israel;

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And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had made to dwell 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 L-rd awaked as one asleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine.

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And He smote His adversaries backward; He put upon them a perpetual reproach.

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Moreover He abhorred 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 founded 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 give suck He brought him, to be shepherd over Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

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So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart; and lead them by the skilfulness of his hands.