Глава 78

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  • 1. {An instruction. Of Asaph.}<br>
    Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
  • 2. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,
  • 3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us:
  • 4. We will not hide [them] from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done.
  • 5. 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;
  • 6. That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children,
  • 7. And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of �God, but observe his commandments;
  • 8. And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with �God.
  • 9. The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.
  • 10. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
  • 11. And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them.
  • 12. In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
  • 13. He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap;
  • 14. And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire.
  • 15. He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly;
  • 16. And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
  • 17. Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;
  • 18. And they tempted �God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;
  • 19. And they spoke against God: they said, Is �God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
  • 20. Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?
  • 21. Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:
  • 22. Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;
  • 23. Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,
  • 24. And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.
  • 25. Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.
  • 26. He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;
  • 27. And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,
  • 28. And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:
  • 29. And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.
  • 30. They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,
  • 31. When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
  • 32. For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works;
  • 33. And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
  • 34. When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after �God;
  • 35. And they remembered that God was their rock, and �God, the Most High, their redeemer.
  • 36. But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue;
  • 37. For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
  • 38. But he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed [them] not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury:
  • 39. And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.
  • 40. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
  • 41. And they turned again and tempted �God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
  • 42. They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor,
  • 43. How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan;
  • 44. And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink;
  • 45. He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them;
  • 46. And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust;
  • 47. He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones;
  • 48. And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
  • 49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, -- a mission of angels of woes.
  • 50. He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
  • 51. And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.
  • 52. And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
  • 53. And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
  • 54. And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased;
  • 55. And he drove out the nations before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
  • 56. But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,
  • 57. And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.
  • 58. And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
  • 59. God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
  • 60. And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,
  • 61. And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;
  • 62. And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance:
  • 63. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song;
  • 64. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
  • 65. Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine;
  • 66. And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach.
  • 67. And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
  • 68. But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved;
  • 69. And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.
  • 70. And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
  • 71. From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
  • 72. And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.