Psalms 78

Listen, my people, to what I teach you. Turn your ears toward the words I speak.

1Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

NoteKJV "law" here renders Hebrew *torah*, which means teaching or instruction of any kind, not only legislation. A parent or a sage could give *torah*; it is not necessarily a legal code.

2I will open my mouth and speak in a parable. I will tell riddles from long ago,

2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

NoteTwo Hebrew terms sit behind this line. *Mashal* (KJV "parable") covers proverbs, comparisons, taunt-songs and instructive tales, any speech that makes its point by likeness. *Hidah* (KJV "dark saying") is a riddle or puzzle, something whose meaning has to be worked out. The psalm that follows is a retelling of national history, so the words signal a story told to be pondered rather than a story told for information.

3things we have heard and know, because our fathers told them to us.

3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

Note"Fathers" throughout this psalm means ancestors or forefathers in general, not fathers as opposed to mothers.

4We will not keep them hidden from their children. We will tell the next generation about the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and the wonders he has done.

4We 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.

5He set up a solemn charge for Jacob and gave a law to Israel. He commanded our fathers to teach these things to their children,

5For 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:

NoteJacob and Israel are the same person: Genesis records Jacob being renamed Israel, and his descendants were called the children of Israel. Poetry uses the two names interchangeably for the whole nation, which is why the same statement is made twice here in different words. "Testimony" translates a word for a formal, binding declaration of terms, the stipulations of an agreement, set out so they can be witnessed and remembered.

6so the next generation would know them, even children not yet born, who would grow up and tell their own children.

6That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7Then they would put their hope in God, and not forget what God has done, but keep his commands.

7That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not set right and whose spirits were not loyal to God.

8And 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.

9The men of Ephraim, one of Israel's tribes, were armed and carried bows, yet they turned and ran on the day of battle.

9The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

NoteEphraim was the largest of the northern tribes, and its name is often used to stand for the northern tribes as a group. No battle matching this description is recorded elsewhere in the Bible, and interpreters have never agreed on which event, if any, is meant; the psalm may be speaking of a general failure rather than one occasion.

10They did not keep their agreement with God, and they refused to live by his law.

10They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

NoteA covenant was a formal sworn agreement, close in form to a treaty between a ruler and a subject people: it set out obligations on both sides, was ratified by oath and ceremony, and was expected to bind later generations.

11They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

11And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

12He did marvelous things while their fathers watched, in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

12Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

NoteZoan is the city the Egyptians called Djanet and the Greeks called Tanis, in the north-eastern Nile delta. It served at times as an Egyptian royal residence, so naming it locates the events in the seat of Egyptian power.

13He split the sea open and brought them through it. He made the water stand up in a heap.

13He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

NoteThis refers to the escape from Egypt through the sea, told in Exodus 14. The Hebrew name of that sea, *yam suph*, means "sea of reeds"; "Red Sea" comes from the ancient Greek translation.

14By day he led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

14In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

NoteThe cloud by day and fire by night are the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire of Exodus 13, described there as going ahead of the people to show the route.

15He split rocks open in the wilderness and gave them water to drink, as much as if it came from the deep seas.

15He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

NoteTwo occasions are recorded in which Moses struck a rock and water came out for the people to drink, at Rephidim (Exodus 17) and at Meribah (Numbers 20).

16He brought streams out of the rock and made water run down like rivers.

16He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17But they went on sinning against him. There in the dry land they defied the Most High.

17And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

Note"Most High" translates *Elyon*, an ancient title meaning the highest or uppermost. It was in use as a divine title in the region before Israel existed, and Hebrew poetry keeps it as a formal, elevated name.

18They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved.

18And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

NoteIn 1611 English, "lust" meant any strong craving or appetite, with no necessarily sexual sense, and "meat" meant food of any kind, not flesh in particular. KJV "tempted" also means put to the test or tried out, not enticed into wrongdoing.

19They spoke against God. They said, "Can God really set a table out here in the wilderness?

19Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

20Yes, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, and streams poured over. But can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?"

20Behold, 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?

21So the LORD heard this and was furious. A fire blazed up against Jacob, and his anger rose against Israel,

21Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22because they did not believe God and did not trust him to save them.

22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

Note"Salvation" here translates a Hebrew word meaning rescue or deliverance from concrete danger, being got out of a tight place. It is the ordinary word for being saved from an enemy or a disaster.

23Yet he had given orders to the clouds above and had opened the doors of the sky.

23Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

NoteThe sky is pictured as a solid vault with openings in it, through which rain, snow and hail are let down from the waters stored above. "Doors of heaven" is that picture, not a figure of speech about a palace.

24He had rained manna down on them to eat. He had given them grain from the sky.

24And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

NoteManna is the food described in Exodus 16, a fine flake-like substance found on the ground each morning. The name is explained there from the people's question *man hu*, "what is it?" KJV "corn" means grain of any kind, in 1611 English "corn" was the general word for cereal crops, not maize.

25People ate the bread of angels. He sent them all the food they could hold.

25Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "bread of the mighty ones," and who the mighty ones are is disputed: the ancient Greek translation took it as angels, which the KJV follows, while others take it as "the bread of the strong," food fit for warriors.

26He made an east wind blow across the sky, and by his power he drove in the south wind.

26He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

27He rained meat down on them as thick as dust, birds on the wing as many as the sand on the shore.

27He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

NoteThe birds are quail, described in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11 as arriving on the wind in enormous numbers and dropping around the camp.

28He let them fall in the middle of their camp, all around where they lived.

28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29So they ate and were well filled, because he gave them exactly what they wanted.

29So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

30They had not yet had their fill of what they craved. The food was still in their mouths when this happened:

30They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

31God's anger came down on them. He killed their strongest men and cut down the finest young men of Israel.

31The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

NoteKJV "the fattest of them" renders "their fat ones," meaning the well-fed and robust, the physically strongest, not the overweight. The episode referred to is in Numbers 11, where the place was afterwards named Kibroth-hattaavah, "graves of craving."

32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning. They did not believe him, even after his wonderful works.

32For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

33So he ended their days in emptiness, and their years in sudden terror.

33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

34Whenever he killed them, they would look for him. They would turn back and search hard for God.

34When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

NoteKJV "enquired early" translates a verb built on the word for dawn. It carries the sense of seeking eagerly and urgently rather than literally seeking at daybreak.

35They would remember that God was their rock, that God Most High was the one who bought them back.

35And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

Note"Redeemer" translates *go'el*, a legal role in Israelite family law: the nearest relative who was obliged to buy back a kinsman sold into slavery, buy back family land that had been sold off, or take up a relative's cause at law. The word is about a family duty to recover what was lost, and it carries that legal flavor when applied to God.

36But they only flattered him with their mouths, and lied to him with their tongues.

36Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

37Their hearts were not truly with him, and they were not faithful to their agreement with him.

37For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

38But he was full of pity. He forgave their guilt and did not destroy them. Again and again he held his anger back and did not let his full fury loose.

38But 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.

39He remembered that they were only human, a breath of wind that blows past and does not come back.

39For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

40How often they defied him in the wilderness and made him grieve in that dry land!

40How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

41Again and again they turned back and tested God, and they pained the Holy One of Israel.

41Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

NoteKJV "limited the Holy One of Israel" is a guess at a rare Hebrew verb whose meaning is uncertain. Most modern translators take it as "provoked," "pained" or "grieved"; the older sense of putting a limit on God is unlikely but cannot be ruled out.

42They did not remember what his hand had done, the day he rescued them from the enemy,

42They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

43how he performed his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the region of Zoan.

43How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

44He turned their rivers to blood, so they could not drink from their own streams.

44And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

NoteVerses 44 to 51 run through the plagues of Egypt told in Exodus 7 to 12, though the psalm gives seven of them, in a different order from Exodus and with some details unique to this poem.

45He sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up, and frogs, which ruined them.

45He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

Note"Divers sorts of" is 1611 English for "various kinds of." The Hebrew word *arob* names a swarm of some insect but does not say which; "flies" is a traditional guess, and ancient translators variously understood biting flies, gnats or a mixture of creatures.

46He handed their crops over to the grasshopper, and everything they had worked for to the locust.

46He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

NoteKJV "caterpiller" and "locust" render two Hebrew words for crop-destroying insects, most likely locusts at different stages of growth or different kinds of locust. Neither is a caterpillar in the modern sense.

47He killed their grapevines with hail and their sycamore-fig trees with frost.

47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

NoteThe sycomore is the sycamore-fig, a large fruit tree common in Egypt and the lowlands of Israel. Its figs were a cheap staple food, and its timber was widely used. It is unrelated to the tree called sycamore in Britain or North America today.

48He handed their cattle over to the hail and their flocks to bolts of lightning.

48He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

NoteKJV "hot thunderbolts" renders a Hebrew word of uncertain meaning: proposals include lightning flashes, fever, or plague. Translations differ, and the sense cannot be settled.

49He turned loose on them his burning anger, his fury, his outrage, and disaster, by sending a band of destroying angels among them.

49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

NoteThe Hebrew word for angel means simply "messenger." The phrase is literally "a sending of messengers of evil" (that is, agents dispatched to bring disaster), rather than angels who are themselves wicked, which is how the KJV wording reads to a modern ear.

50He cleared a path for his anger. He did not hold back their lives from death, but handed them over to the plague.

50He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51He struck down every firstborn son in Egypt, the first and best of their strength, in the tents of Ham.

51And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

Note"Tabernacles" in the KJV means tents or dwellings generally, not the tent-sanctuary of Israel. Ham is one of Noah's sons in Genesis, listed there as the ancestor of the Egyptians and their neighbors, so "tents of Ham" is a poetic way of saying Egypt. "The chief of their strength" translates an idiom for the firstborn son, understood as the first product of a father's vigor.

52But he brought his own people out like sheep, and led them through the wilderness like a flock.

52But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53He led them safely, so they were not afraid, but the sea swallowed their enemies.

53And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54He brought them to the edge of his holy land, to this mountain, which his own right hand had won.

54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

Note"This mountain" is not identified. It may mean the hill country of Canaan as a whole, or Mount Zion in Jerusalem, which the psalm names in verse 68; the Hebrew allows either. "Purchased" translates a verb meaning to acquire or take possession of, not necessarily to buy with money.

55He drove out the nations ahead of them and measured out their land as an inheritance. He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

55He 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.

NoteKJV "heathen" simply means "the nations" (the other peoples, foreigners) and carries none of the modern sense of irreligious or uncivilised. "Divided an inheritance by line" refers to the surveyor's measuring cord used to mark out land allotments when territory was shared among the tribes, described in Joshua 13 to 19.

56Yet they tested God Most High and defied him, and they did not keep the terms he had given them.

56Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

57They turned away and were disloyal, just as their fathers had been. They twisted aside like a bow that will not shoot straight.

57But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58They made him angry with their worship sites on the hills, and stirred up his jealousy with their carved idols.

58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

Note"High places" were open-air shrines, usually on hilltops or raised platforms, with an altar and standing stones. They were the ordinary local places of worship across the region. "Graven images" are carved figures, the word describes how they were made, by cutting or chiselling.

59When God heard about it, he was furious, and he utterly rejected Israel.

59When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60He walked away from the tent at Shiloh, the tent he had set up among people.

60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

NoteShiloh, about twenty miles north of Jerusalem in the territory of Ephraim, was where the tent-sanctuary and the ark stood before the temple was built. KJV "tabernacle" here means that portable tent shrine.

61He let his strength be carried off as a prisoner, and his glory fall into enemy hands.

61And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

Note"His strength" and "his glory" are ways of naming the ark of the covenant, the chest that stood in the sanctuary. The reference is to 1 Samuel 4, where the Philistines captured it in battle and carried it away.

62He handed his people over to the sword, because he was furious with the people who belonged to him.

62He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

NoteCalling Israel God's "inheritance" uses the language of land allotment: an inheritance was the share of territory permanently belonging to a family. The nation is spoken of as the portion allotted to God himself.

63Fire destroyed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs.

63The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

NoteThe Hebrew says the young women "were not praised," which is generally understood as the wedding songs sung in a bride's honor. With the young men dead, there were no marriages to celebrate.

64Their priests were killed by the sword, and their widows were not able to weep for them.

64Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

NoteFormal mourning for the dead was loud, public and expected, often with hired professional mourners. That the widows could not perform it marks the disaster as overwhelming, either because the deaths came too fast, or because the survivors were themselves in danger.

65Then the Lord woke up, like a man waking from sleep, like a strong warrior shouting after wine.

65Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

NoteThe comparison is to a soldier roused from sleep and roaring, the Hebrew word is for a warrior or champion, and the shout is a battle cry. The image of wine indicates the sudden loud force of the shout, not drunkenness in the modern sense.

66He drove his enemies back and struck them down. He put them to shame that would never be lived down.

66And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

NoteKJV "smote his enemies in the hinder parts" means struck them backwards, driving them into retreat; the Hebrew says he struck his foes "behind." Some readers connect it with 1 Samuel 5, where the Philistines who held the ark were afflicted with tumors.

67He turned down the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

67Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

NoteJoseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, became tribes in their own right, so "the tent of Joseph" and "the tribe of Ephraim" name overlapping things. Shiloh, the sanctuary abandoned in verse 60, stood in Ephraim's territory; the verse is describing the shift of the central sanctuary away from the north.

68Instead he chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.

68But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

NoteZion is the ridge in Jerusalem on which the fortress and later the temple stood. Judah was the leading southern tribe and David's own tribe.

69He built his holy place like the high mountains, like the earth, which he set in place forever.

69And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

NoteThe Hebrew reads "like the heights", the comparison is to mountains or to the height of the sky, which the KJV took as "high palaces." Which is meant is disputed.

70He also chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheep pens.

70He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71He brought him from tending the mother sheep to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, the people who belonged to him.

71From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

NoteCalling a ruler the shepherd of his people was standard political language across the ancient Near East, used of kings in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan long before David. KJV "feed" translates the verb "to shepherd," which covers the whole work of pasturing, guarding and leading a flock.

72So David cared for them with an honest heart, and led them with skillful hands.

72So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.