Chapter 78

  Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, [to] my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  

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  I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:  

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  Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  

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  We will not hide [them] from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful 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 [which] should be born; [who] should arise and declare [them] to their children:  

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  That they might set their hope 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, [being] armed, [and] carrying bows, 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 forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed 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 divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.  

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  In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.  

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  He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as [out of] the great depths.  

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  He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.  

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  And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.  

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  And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.  

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  Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?  

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  Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?  

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  Therefore the LORD heard [this], and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;  

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  Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:  

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  Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,  

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  And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.  

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  Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.  

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  He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.  

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  He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:  

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  And he let [it] fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.  

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  So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;  

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  They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat [was] yet in their mouths,  

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  The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen [men] of Israel.  

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  For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.  

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  Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.  

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  When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.  

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  And they remembered that God [was] their rock, and the high God their redeemer.  

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  Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.  

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  For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.  

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  But he, [being] full of compassion, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.  

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  For he remembered that they [were but] flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.  

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  How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, [and] grieve him in the desert!  

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  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.  

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  They remembered not his hand, [nor] the day when he delivered them from the enemy.  

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  How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:  

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  And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.  

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  He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.  

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  He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.  

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  He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.  

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  He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.  

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  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels [among them].  

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  He made a way to 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 firstborn in Egypt; the chief of [their] strength in the tabernacles of Ham:  

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  But 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 on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.  

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  And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, [even to] this mountain, [which] his right hand had purchased.  

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  He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.  

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  Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:  

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  But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.  

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  For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.  

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  When God heard [this], he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:  

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  So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent [which] he placed among men;  

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  And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy'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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  The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.  

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  Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.  

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  Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, [and] like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.  

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  And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.  

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  Moreover he refused the tabernacle 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 high [palaces], like the earth which he hath established 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 great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.  

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

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