Psalm 78:40-72
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
III
A
40 How often they rebelled against God in the wilderness,
grieved him in the wasteland.
41 Again and again they tested God,
provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power,
the day he redeemed them from the foe,(A)
43 [a]When he performed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the plain of Zoan.(B)
44 God turned their rivers to blood;
their streams they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of insects that devoured them,(C)
frogs that destroyed them.
46 He gave their harvest to the caterpillar,
the fruits of their labor to the locust.
47 He killed their vines with hail,(D)
their sycamores with frost.
48 He exposed their cattle to plague,
their flocks to pestilence.(E)
49 He let loose against them the heat of his anger,
wrath, fury, and distress,
a band of deadly messengers.
50 He cleared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but delivered their animals to the plague.
51 He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,(F)
the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
52 Then God led forth his people like sheep,
guided them like a flock through the wilderness.(G)
53 He led them on secure and unafraid,
while the sea enveloped their enemies.(H)
54 And he brought them to his holy mountain,
the hill his right hand had won.(I)
55 He drove out the nations before them,
allotted them as their inherited portion,
and settled in their tents the tribes of Israel.
B
56 But they tested and rebelled against God Most High,
his decrees they did not observe.
57 They turned disloyal, faithless like their ancestors;
they proved false like a slack bow.
58 They enraged him with their high places,
and with their idols provoked him[b] to jealous anger.(J)
C
59 God heard and grew angry;
he rejected Israel completely.
60 He forsook the shrine at Shiloh,[c](K)
the tent he set up among human beings.
61 He gave up his might into captivity,
his glorious ark into the hands of the foe.(L)
62 God delivered his people to the sword;
he was enraged against his heritage.
63 Fire consumed their young men;
their young women heard no wedding songs.(M)
64 Their priests fell by the sword;
their widows made no lamentation.
D
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a warrior shouting from the effects of wine.
66 He put his foes to flight;
everlasting shame he dealt them.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph,
chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
68 [d]God chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.(N)
69 He built his shrine like the heavens,
like the earth which he founded forever.
70 He chose David his servant,
took him from the sheepfolds.(O)
71 From tending ewes God brought him,
to shepherd Jacob, his people,
Israel, his heritage.(P)
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart;
with skilled hands he guided them.
Footnotes
- 78:43–55 Ex 7–12 records ten plagues. Here there are six divine attacks upon Egypt; the seventh climactic act is God’s bringing Israel to the holy land.
- 78:58 Provoked him: lit., “made him jealous.”
- 78:60 Shiloh: an important shrine in the north prior to Jerusalem. Despite its holy status, it was destroyed (Ps 78:60–64; cf. Jer 7:12, 14).
- 78:68, 70 God’s ultimate offer of mercy to the sinful, helpless people is Zion and the Davidic king.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.