78:1	O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
78:2	I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--
78:3	what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
78:4	We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
78:5	He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
78:6	so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
78:7	Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
78:8	They would not be like their forefathers--a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
78:9	The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;
78:10	they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.
78:11	They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
78:12	He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
78:13	He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.
78:14	He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
78:15	He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
78:16	he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
78:17	But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
78:18	They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
78:19	They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
78:20	When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?"
78:21	When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,
78:22	for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
78:23	Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;
78:24	he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.
78:25	Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
78:26	He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power.
78:27	He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
78:28	He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.
78:29	They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved.
78:30	But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths,
78:31	God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.
78:32	In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
78:33	So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
78:34	Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.
78:35	They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
78:36	But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
78:37	their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
78:38	Yet 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.
78:39	He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
78:40	How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!
78:41	Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
78:42	They did not remember his power--the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
78:43	the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
78:44	He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
78:45	He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
78:46	He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
78:47	He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
78:48	He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
78:49	He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility--a band of destroying angels.
78:50	He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.
78:51	He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
78:52	But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.
78:53	He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
78:54	Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
78:55	He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
78:56	But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
78:57	Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
78:58	They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
78:59	When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely.
78:60	He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
78:61	He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
78:62	He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.
78:63	Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;
78:64	their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.
78:65	Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
78:66	He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.
78:67	Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
78:68	but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
78:69	He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
78:70	He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;
78:71	from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.
78:72	And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
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